The Heavens Wept - The Tale of Nagato and Konan
by Dunstin
Summary: What if Konan and Nagato had bested Naruto at the end of their climatic battle, and progressed with their own agenda of peace? The God and His messenger chase after the remaining Eight-Tails as they cope with the losses sustained by their battle with Naruto. Their quest, however, leads to an enemy with all the divinity of Pain and none of his intentions. M for intense, dark scenes.
1. Chapter 1 - Change in the Wind

**What if Naruto hadn't been able to convince Nagato and Konan of his method for peace, and instead they both survived their encounter with him? I explore in what I think is an in-universe continuity if such a thing had happened in which the remaining Ame orphans sought to restore peace to the world through their own means. But just as Naruto would face problems far greater than Pain in the future, so must our new anti-heroes face those same threats to accomplish their ultimate desire.**

 **Yes, I'm back from the dead, long story. If you're a fan of the Akatsuki like I am and like scenario's like these, I'd suggest checking out my stories on Hidan/Kakuzu and Deidara/Sasori. Otherwise, sit back and enjoy this little story I've created. Reviews on your thoughts always appreciated!**

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

The time had come, was passing, and would continue to pass no matter what happened to him.

The issue was, he _couldn't_ let it pass without him.

The Paths we're defeated. Somehow- someway, impossible to fathom. His last image from the Deva Path- Yahiko- was one most unsettling. The Nine Tails jiinchuriki, returned from his beast state and able to take down the _Deva?_

He moved restlessly inside his container, feeling uncertain again; his prison, thanks to the damage to his legs sustained from that Day.

From the corner of his eye, he noticed Konan watching him. Blessed Konan, never leaving his side. She was the only one that he perhaps saw as a friend, though such things were far behind and beyond him now. Concern filled her amber eyes, and she took a hesitant step towards his still body.

Exhaling deeply, he finally said, "He's coming."

Immediately she raised her hand, and the paper tree she had created as camoflouge began to crumble. "I'll move you myself, just let me-"

"No. I want to face him, here."

"Nagato, that's-"

"Insane? Stupid?" He licked his bloodless lips. "Possibly. But I won't fail and run away, Konan. Not now. Now when I'm so close."

Her arms did not lower, but he could feel the tree's collapse freeze. "He's coming to kill you, you know that?" she said. "You just destroyed his village. A lot of his friends are dead, and his chakra reserves are unknown right now-"

"He will come but he won't attack first. He will want to speak." He closed his eyes and relaxed in his prison, trying to recuperate as much chakra as he could. She was right- his chakra _was_ immense, and it would take everything he had to overwhelm his in this final, desperate stage.

Finally, Konan lowered her arms. "The moment he moves to harm you, I'll stop him."

 _I highly doubt you could ever match him._ "If it soothes you," he said instead, eyes still closed.

And they waited. As he did, he thought of Yakiho's corpse, strewn out helplessly on foreign lands. When the jiinchuriki was caught, he would make it his priority to recover it. The very thought of Yakiho out there...

 _I haven't failed you yet, my friend. Just wait._

His body was in pain, constant and unceasing. Twice his recovery broke off because of the stabbing feeligs that came from the damaged nerves in his legs. At the same time it pushed him on. Pain was unstoppable... he smiled at the analogy.

Footsteps from the outside, and there was no more time. Taking a deep breath, he finally opened his eyes as the sound of ripping paper echoed into their enclosure.

The jinchuuriki stood there, just as he had in the eyes of the Deva Path. Tall, blonde, battered but alive. In his body, the valuable essence of the Nine Tails lied like a sweet prize from a carnival stand-

Konan rushed forward, and he bit back a curse. "Konan, stay out of this," he said commandingly.

"But Nagato-"

 _I told you already-_ "It's alright," he said, more for the sake of keeping her held back. This was between _them_ , the students of Jiraiya. Two great beings of power-

But one difference. The jiinchuriki was a mortal.

He was God.

"Are you him?" The jinchuuriki looked at him with a sort of wide, terrorized curiosity. No doubt he had been expecting some clever, powerful being waiting in the shadows as a final battle. Not... not what he had become. "Are you the real Pain?"

It irked him. "So the peacemaker comes stumbling in at last."

The jincuuriki stared at him still, but Nagato could feel the hatred starting to swell up. He had seen it, all too many times. The acts of a God often seemed incomprehensible to those lesser than him. Still... the boy had defeated all Six Paths. He was worthy of consideration, at least for the moment. In the back of his mind, he delegated a small path of himself to keep recovering chakra. _Patience is my weapon- use it well._

But the boy continued to stare at him, and Nagato wondered if he would make the same move many others had done in the past. "Tell me," Nagato taunted. "Do you hate me now? Do you wish to exact revenge on me?"

The jiinchuriki's mouth worked itself into a tightly controlled snarl, and he braced himself for the moment.

"Killing Nagato and achieving vengeance will give you nothing but give you personal satisfaction." Konan stepped forward, almost pleading- for _him_! He looked at her while the jiinchuriki continued to stare, lost in his own thoughts.

 _He can't even make the choice whether he wants to kill me or not. This is over._ Once again bracing himself, he said, "If you cannot find the answer, then there is nothing more you can do. So simply do the just thing and simply sacrifice yourself to me! And the peace I shall soon construct!"

 _Now_. He focused his chakra into his legs and activated the prison in which he resided in for it's one weapon- the chakra receiver spear it could eject. It shot forward and Jiraiya's last student took it full to the chest.

Konan's eyes widened, looking between the boy and Nagato. He breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the first droplets of blood hit the floor, and his own chakra began to filter through the boy, taking over nerves, infiltrating him down to the last cell. There could be no more failure with this jinchuuriki- no more.

But he was resisting, the shock of the blow fading. "From this distance, I can control every move of yours with my chakra," he called out. "But don't worry, I've avoiding anything vital... because you're invaluable to me, jinchuuriki."

A hurricane of power. It was so sudden he almost didn't have time to react, and he poured all his chakra into a barrier, but the wild ferocity of the Nine-Tails chakra broke his barrier as if it were the paper surrounding them. The power- the raw _power_ -

 _NO._ _I CONTROL-_

"I came here to talk to you-" the jinchuuriki began, his voice rough with the air of a beast. Nagato gasped, thrashing about in his prison as if he had been crucified to it. The chakra surge was frying every inch of his body, heating him up like an oven. Fireworks danced beneath his eyes. _The power-_

A shadow moved beneath him.

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

She had warned, why didn't he want to listen? He rarely listened to her these days, sometimes she felt he kept her around like some lost family heirloom, to remind himself that he was still human and not the God he made himself out to be-

But she wasn't going to stand by and collect dust. She wouldn't stand by... not like that Day.

Her wings snapped behind her like the feathers of a real bird, and she shot across the room towards the jinchuuriki, bowling him over with enough force to completely cut off the rest of his sentence. No doubt her interference had been the last thing on his mind, probably on Nagato's too. Did he expect her to ignore his thrashing about like a wounded animal?

She carried the boy high into the air, and his hands gripped her shoulders. His fury was intense; she could practically feel it digging into her skin-

No, he _was_ digging into her cloak. His nails had sharpened into that of a beasts, and she looked into his eyes. A blood-red, a cross made of the fox's slanted vertical shape and the Sage Mode's horizontal bar. It only heightened the need to end this quickly: if she carried this on for any longer than it had to, he was liable to kill her.

Leaving Nagato alone-

 _Not like that Day._ She folded the wings, enclosing both of them. The metal chakra receiver coming from Naruto's stomach awkwardly pushed against her stomach as they began to fall. His hands went from her arms to her chest, ripping apart the cloak, seeking the skin beneath-

She put them into a spin, and she made the mistake of looking up. The ground was not paper; it was hard earth, and it spun closer like some sort of vortex. " _Nagato!"_ she cried, not in fear but in hoping he would make the move once her part was done-

They struck the earth, and to her great surprise she found herself to still be conscious, not a bone broken. She clawed herself out of the earth, and looked over at Naruto. He was collapsed, face up, eyes closed. The earth to his left was dented as if a giant hammer had swung into it. His hair was brownish and red; blood leaked from the direct wound, and she thought his head, likewise, bore the same dent as the earth.

"I cushioned your fall." She turned around; Nagato looked at her, eyes gaunt and slightly angry. Vomit trailed down the front of his metal position. "You shouldn't have intervened, I had it under control."

"Under control?" She gestured to the unconscious boy. "Don't act like he wasn't using the Nine Tails' power to overwhelm you. Any longer and he could have very well been controlling _your_ every movements."

He gave a snort. "He never would have stood a chance." His stable began to roll forward, the chakra receiver shooter closing. "Your attack's cracked his skull. He's not going anywhere ever again. Throw him onto me and we will return to the hideout."

 _I'm not a pack mule_ , she wanted to say, but she did as he said anyways. He rarely treated her this bad anyways; the shock of near defeat had no doubt upset him slightly.

She could deal with that. They were closer to the Goal. As she tossed Naruto's body onto him, their eyes met, and something more peaceful entered his.

Peaceful, in the eyes of the Rinnegan, eyes built for seeing war and yet they looked at her just as they had long ago. She smiled at him, and he did, and for a moment they were back in the orphan house, Yahiko and Jiraiya standing with them...

The moment was gone, and the reality of the Rinnegan's purpose settled in. "You can take down the tree now," he said hoarsely. "We'll move as soon as you're finished. We have a long week of extracting the Nine Tails ahead of us. I'll contact the others."

"Of course." In minutes they were away, the future more open to them than ever before.


	2. Chapter 2 - Akatsuki

**Konan**

 **XXX**

She had not seen him this exhausted for many years, and it worried him. But he refused to accept anything more than the minimum help, embracing the pain of his movements.

They were drenched in the rain of Amegakure's relenting natural forces, and she knew Nagato could not bring himself to end it like he had before many times. It only served to make her shiver despite herself. _I was close to losing both of them. Again..._

"You will have to speak to them. They cannot see me." She looked over to him; he was fitted in a smaller device, a roller that allowed him to move about easier. His dark red hair shielded his face from her, but he was not looking at her to begin with. His face was tilted downwards, looking at the unmoving body of Naruto Uzumaki

Her brow furrowed. "What are you afraid of?"

"Nothing," he said, speaking like it was a fact. "But they cannot view me for who I am. The illusion of the Paths must remain."

 _To keep your God-appearance?_ "Very well," she said. She picked up Naruto like a baby, his bottom sinking towards the ground as she held him by the ankles and arms. "We will need you to activate the summoning, of course."

He nodded, faintly. "I'll do it from my quarters, send me a message when they're all ready. He entered without another word, and she went through the main entrance herself. The multi-colored tower had been their home for many years, and she finally felt a sense of relaxation ome through her as she entered it.

In the main sanctum, the remnant of the Akatsuki stood at the foot of the enormous statue the tower's giant height sought to conceal. They stood at its foot, inspecting her return.

Kisame smiled his shark tooth grin, all his teeth appearing from behind the pale blue lips. "So, the fearless leader's return. And with their cargo nicely intact."

"Very well done," White Zetsu said softly, while his black counterpart, attached to the same body, said more sinisterly, "Most impressive. The most fearsome of the Tailed Beats finally subdued."

She had eyes only for the silent man wearing the orange mask, the spiral-shape finishing into the one eyehole where the faintest red of a Sharingan could be seen. Tobi, he called himself. At least in public; in private, she knew him through the conversations and advice he often gave Nagato. A name lost to the ages, but still an object in fear in modernity.

Madara Uchiha. He stared at Naruto, the mask hiding his intentions, but Konan thought the warrior seemed to give off an air of absolute satisfaction.

"You got him." She flicker her gaze to the younger man beside Madara- she refused to think of him as Tobi anymore, not since he'd abodnoned his goofball identity- and saw in his eyes a sort of displaced anger, as if he wasn't sure he should be feeling that way.

"So we did." She marched past him and the others as they followed in suit behind her. The Gedo Statue rocky structure loomed before her, and she said the jiinchurki's body before it. "Take your positions," she said swiftly. "This will take time, as you all know."

The young man beside Madara hesitated. "What will be done to him?"

"The Tailed Beast will be extracted from his body," Kisame said, perhaps a little stiffly. The boy had, after all, been the one to kill Kisame's partner. "It'll be sucked into the statue, granting it power... and then we go after the remaining jinchuuriki, the Eight-Tails."

"Which you failed to get yourself," White Zetsu chimed in to the youth.

From behind them against the wall, the tentative voice of a young red-head girl said, "It wasn't our fault! It evaded our capture through sheer luck-"

"Quiet, girl." Konan turned away from her, to all of them. "I said get into your positions. Tobi, show Sasuke where he should go. I think Itachi's place will be sufficient."

Sasuke Uchiha stiffened at the name of his older brother, but allowed himself to be guided by Madara, placing him right beside Kisame. Madara then moved some yards away to stand next to Zetsu.

Kisame cocked his head. "And where, dare I ask, is our dear leader? Not that there's anything against _you_ showing us the way, Konan."

"The battle against the Nine-Tails depleted his strength," she said swiftly. "He will need time to recover, in his personal chambers. However, he will join us via chakra hologram in time."

The former grunted and raised his hands towards the limp body of the jiinchuriki. "Works for me."

Madara and Zetsu did the same, but Sasuke Uchiha hesitated. He was still staring at the body of the jiinchurki, his hands working at his sides. It seemed he was unsure of what to do with himself. "Sasuke," Madara said quietly. "Your hands. Raise them. You three," he said louder, looking to where Sasuke's team of three stood against the wall, talking quietly amongst themselves. "You will supplement Sasuke with chakra when he requires it. Without the full Akatsuki, the sealing will take many days to perform. As he is not fully developed, he will require supplement-"

"I'm fine," Sasuke said curtly, and he raised his hands without any further objection or hesitation. Konan noticed, however, his eyes remained closed.

"Very well," she stated, stretching out a finger and letting paper fold off it into a small bird. It moved about on her finger for a moment, beautiful in its own way, before she sent it flying upward. "Now we simply need Pain."

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

He ascended to the highest point in the tower through the old lift. The tallest tower in Amegakure, it had once been home to a war factory producing, high-density weapons for Amegakure, back when the civil war had raged. Destroying all such production methods and making it the place he began his ovjective had peace had been much a literal transition as much as symbolic one. Much of it remained hollow, to make room for the Gedo Statue housed below. But above he had made into his own sanctum.

The lift ended, and he urged his mobile prison forward. It was the same as he had left it of course; he longed to rest in it, and then quickly questioned himself why.

Exhaustion had been alien to him for many years; the need to use as much chakra as he had in his battle with the Nine-Tails had never happened before, not even when he had first summoned the Gedo Statue, or fought Hanzo or Jiraiya. He grimaced as realized the feeling of exhaustion, and what it served to remind him of. _Mortality._

His body was wet with water, and he left puddles behind as he pushed himself forward. The maw of the face he had had constructed in the image of Yahiko acted as a window beyond, showing the rain still pouring outside. Tomorrow would have been a day he would have ceased the rain, a display of his power he had begun to do every sixth day of a week.

But he would not do so.. The Heavens deserved to weep with the loss of Yahiko, whom they would have to recover at a later date. Konan had opted to gather him herself, but Nagato could not make the return journey alone, not in his state. The body of their past would have to be recovered a later date.

It filled him with a rage, much like the one he had developed that Day, that he had used to destroy so many lives. He had forfeit his existence as a mortal then, choosing to take the path of God. And gods did not feel rage like this, he was certain of it. They were above basic emotions; he forced himself to remain calm.

 _I'm sorry, Yahiko._ He would allow himself that- he allowed the one thought to leave and go out into the rain. Then it was back to business.

Amegakure had many citizens still, many who idolized him. Many bore great natural skill and prowess, and he had logs on all of them. He would have to choose the bodies he had lost; restoring them was possible with the Naraka Path, but he had no desire to use what had already failed him once. To do so would be shameful.

But Yahiko's body he would re-use. The other five had failed him, but it was Nagato who had failed Yahiko.

A white bird flew into the sanctum through the mouth of the face, and he immediately recognized it as one of Konan's paper cranes. Bracing himself, he pressed his palms together, tilting his head back. It would take a little extra time to warp his appearance into that of Yahiko's but again, it was necessary for them to see him unchanged.

He closed his eyes and quickly they opened, but not in his body. A hazy view of the assembled Akatsuki and the Gedo Statue stood before him.

"Welcome back, dear leader," Kisame said, his voice as hazy as his appearance. "We do hope you haven't exerted yourself too much acquiring the jiinchurki here."

"Not at all," he said, warping his voice to match the deeper tone used by Yahiko. Kisame's words, at least, confirmed his presence looked like that of the dead hero. "We are ready to begin, then?" he asked pointedly, looking to Konan. Her eyes took in his false appearance a moment before she nodded. They all raised their hands in the sealing hand sign.

The familiar strain appeared in his actual eyes, in the sanctum. "As we were, then. **Sealing: Six Dragons Consuming!"**

Immeaditely there was the sounding of crackling stone as the Gedo Statue's rocky mouth opened, exposing the chakra bubbling inside it. Eyes still open, he focused all his control onto the coming jutsu. If it got out of control, it was liable to attack them all instead. This technique, he hoped, with all nine tailed beats would be the weapon to use against nations who dared to make war amongst each other.

A roaring came from the chakra in the statue's mouth, and suddenly six blue dragons emerged, swishing through the air. From the corner of his eye, he saw young Sasuke Uchiha tense, but the boy remained in place. He refocused onto the dragons who began aiming for the body of the jiinchurki lying helpless before them.

To Nagato surprise, he thought he saw the lips move. Was it him, or did they seem to be mouthing 'Sasuke?'

Then the body was gone, lost in the roaring maws of the blue dragons as they enveloped him in a coronal white light. The chakra haze expanded, but stopped before it could touch any of the Akatsuki members, their combined chakra's holding the technique in place. The jiinchurki was somewhere inside the mass, the tailed beast now fighting the technique as it sought to extract it's essence into the statue.

Even though resistance was useless. He smiled to himself in his body. Resistance everywhere was useless- this boy was living proof of it. And soon, shinobi everywhere would learn the same thing.


	3. Chapter 3 - Sealing

**Review Responses:**

 **BlackDisciple: I really like exploring character's, especially one's that have become so engrained in just general culture like Pain. Naruto universe really allows for some colorful personalities to be viewed from different angles. As for Sasuke, since he was apart of Akatsuki towards the end and stayed under Madara's influence until he sort of went bezerk in canon, I want to see how I can glue him in as a secondary figure in Pain's Akatsuki instead.**

 **ZaxIoI: Glad you're interested, I'll update it at least once over the weekend and on Wednesday every week till its done so you get an idea of when it comes around.**

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

The first four days passed in silence. Sasuke Uchiha strained and nearly collapsed twice, but his teammates fed him their own chakra, and he would continue. He would shape out to be a fine addition to their ranks, even if he still had a long way to go. Under Madara's tutelage, he suspected the boy would shape out fine.

On the fifth day, however, he nearly collapsed himself. The process was going along steadily, and suddenly his connection was lost to the others. His body panged painfully, and blood came to his lips. _I've overextended_ , he thought, and he hung over the side of his roller, gasping and feeling sick.

It was a full hour before Konan came up to see him. "What happened?" she asked, coming over to him.

He waved her away. "You shouldn't have come, you should've continued the ritual."

"Madara knows what he's doing, he can lead them." She walked over to him and lifted him by the chin, noting the dried blood. "You strained your body too far. You need to rest."

Nagato looked at her coldly. "I know my limitations much more than you-"

"Don't let your ego be the death of you," she snapped, dropping his chin and he was so weak it fell right down to his chest. "Rest up here, I'll watch you."

"No-"

"I can't rejoin the ritual either way, now that I've left it," she said. "You know that. So I'll remain here. If you need anything, I'm just a movement away." That being said, she went over to the couch and sat upon it. He watched her from the corner of his eye as she made four paper birds, and they fluttered above her. He sighed and relaxed, closing his eyes. _Patience is my weapon. Rest..._

In his dreams, he imagined himself with Konan and Yahiko, his legs undamaged and the harms of the world gone. Jiraiya, Sannin and sensei, stood atop a hill covered in sunlight, beaming down upon his students as he waved farewell, having taught them all he knew. He left them alone, but with the knowledge they would meet again, as friends.

Nagato turned to Yahiko, and his friend expressed the desire to reunite Amegakure, to which the other two accepted. Time flew, and their group expanded beyond three, to hundreds, even thousands, until only Hanzo, leader of the opposition, stood before them alone. Yahiko offered him the chance to surrender peacefully, and Hanzo did so, acknowledging them all to be the proper leaders necessary for the Village Hidden in the Rain.

His vision began to turn red as he looked upon Hanzo. This wasn't a man deserving of mercy or surrender. What he could've done to them-

The entire scene paused. Not what he could've done- what he _had_ done.

Suddenly, the dream altered drastically. Yahiko Konan, himself, all of Amegakure and the sunlit landscape vanished. What remained was Pain in a darkened corridor, with Hanzo, a frail and weak old man fallen on the ground, a hand held up desperately for mercy. Not a dream, a memory.

He raised a hand and blew Hanzo away, and victory filled him. From dream, to nightmare, to reality...

"Nagato... wake up."

Slowly, he opened his eyes. Konan stood in front of him, arms held loosely at her sides. She had not moved from her place on the couch, even though days must have passed. He wondered if she had been sending paper clones instead of herself, so that she could personally keep watch on him- an annoying tendency of hers. "The sealing is almost done; we can return to finish it."

"Of... of course." he said nothing to her of the dream, even though this wasn't the first time he had had it. He didn't believe that the dream represented regret- but what he believed sometimes wasn't true.

But he would never admit that to another. Appearances we're important, even to those close to him. He nodded and lifted a pale hand. "Go. I will create a chakra transmission once more."

She nodded once, and it was a more solid reminder how much time had passed. More than a week had passed- news of Konohagakure's destruction will have leaked to the other nations by now. Stories of Akatsuki's vengeance would be spreading like wildfire, and the smarter folk in those great nations would begin to piece together the mystery of the disappearing jiinchuriki. The time to act would be very soon.

Nagato pressed his hands together and closed his eyes again, to rejoin the others once more. The glowing chakra hologram appeared in the place it had been before, and saw that the Nine-Tails was a hollow husk. The skin clung the bones, the cheeks compressed unnaturally. Naruto Uzumaki, his sibling by student to Jiraiya, was long dead. Not even the Nine-Tails itself remained inside; it had successfully been absorbed into the Gedo Statue, and now it was required he finish sealing it inside.

For a moment, guilt made his insides warm. Jiraiya sensei had attempted to stop him, and he had done away with him easily and remorselessly. Now his student Naruto was also gone- the end of his perverted former master's legacy for peace.

It was quickly brushed aside. _He_ was the present and future now.

"Glad you could join us," Kisame growled from the right. "Have a nice nap?"

"Be kind, Kisame," Madara said lightly, though he, too, sounded strained. "Pain... if you would be so kind?"

The other said the name mockingly, but only just. Madara knew who he was, behind the hologram. He knew he was Nagato, a weak frail man in a metal prison, and it was for this very reason Nagato kept him close and allowed such snide remarks to pass. Nothing was to be gained by upsetting Madara; everything was to be achieved through him.

Nagato stretched the hologram's hands forward into the final sealing hand signs, choosing not to reply. The others relaxed as he did so, and the sealing jutsu's chakra dragons combined into a formless blue ball of pure chakra. At the core of it, a hazy red could be seen swirling violently; the chakra of the Nine-Tails, so malevolent it had taken a different color.

 **"Gedo Statue: Six Dragon Absorption Seal!"**

He slammed the palm down into the ground, pouring his concentration into the Gedo Statue, helping it suck in the resisting Nine-Tails chakra. He narrowed his eyes, all business. _You won't be putting up a fight so mighty this time, jiinchurki. You are mine._

Effortlessly, it was sucked in and the jaws of the Gedo Statue clamped shut, the stone teeth quaking around the mouth muzzle. To his surprise, a sort of aftershock came to him, in the form of a ripple of a thin line of chakra. He tracked it as it exited the building in a ring; none of the others seemed to react. _Never happened before... perhaps the sealing of such a great amount of chakra was a little much for the statue?_ Yet nothing more out of the ordinary occurred, and he looked away from the walls the chakra wave had disappeared through as the glow of chakra vanished, leaving the chamber in a musky darkness.

Sasuke cracked his neck, his arms crossed. "If you could so effortlessly stow away the Nine-Tails chakra like that, why did you leave us?"

"I did not desire to push myself any further after capturing the creature," Nagato said through the hologram, his voice crackling. "I also wished to see you test your own capabilities and stamina in the sealing process. You performed remarkably."

The young Uchiha blinked, then nodded uncertainly. Nagato studied him closely; he knew the boy had been close to Naruto Uzumaki, and had noticed his inner conflict easily at the beginning of the sealing. Now, he seemed to have come to terms with the loss of Uzumaki. Madara would undoubtedly crush any remorse out of him, if there way any; he had a knack for that sort of thing.

But one of his companions, the red-haired brat from before, said boldly: "You didn't even watch his progress, during any of the days after you left! I'm a sensory shinobi; I would've detected you! What were you doing that was so much more important than sealing Naruto?"

Nagato turned the hologram to her, and she flinched back under the gaze of the Rinnegan. "Know your place, girl," he said coldly, the voice crackling again. "What I do is far beyond your concerns." He turned back to Zetsu, Madara, Kisame, and the returned Konan. "The capture of the final jiinchuriki is needed. Begin looking for the Eight-Tails. Our final hour draws close to us."

Kisame clasped his hands together. "Wonderful, wonderful. I'll speak to my contacts in the Land of Lightning. We'll find the bastard before long."

"And I have spores all across the nation," Zetsu added. "He will not remain hidden from us."

"I would speak with you, Pain." Madara tilted his masked head pointedly at him. "If you don't mind."

He nodded the hologram's head, feeling apprehensive. What could Madara want to say? Congratulations? It wasn't out of character of him. Perhaps that was all. "I will see you in the usual place."

"What about us?" Sasuke and his comrades looked imperiously at the huddled S-rank ninja.

Nagato waved a hand carelessly in their direction. "Do what you will, but keep a low profile. Now that news of the devastation of Konohagakure has spread, they previous ignorance towards Akatsuki will be gone. When I require you, you will return to here. That is all."

"We aren't your playthings!" the red-head said hotly, disbelievingly insolent. He longed to run her through...

In a few strides, Konan crossed the space between them and grabbed her by the throat. "Hey!" the white-haired youth beside her cried, drawing the massive sword on his back, but Konan knocked him aside effortlessly. Sasuke and the other looked uncertain.

"Take this lesson more seriously," Konan said flatly to her, and squeezed briefly, making the redhead squeak. Then she released and the girl fell to her knees, choking and near-tears.

Konan looked down remorselessly. "Do not speak to your God with disrespect. Follow his will, respect him. That is all that is asked of you."

"Now go."

 **XXX**

 **Momoshiki Otsutsuki**

 **XXX**

The china tea set was an exquisite sort, the delicate white material welded together by the finest artisans of the planet, hand-crafted over years upon years.

Before the planet had died, of course.

The view of the God Tree was dull. Many years of feasting upon the blood of the fallen had taken it to tremendous heights, but he had long grown bored of it's sight. Just as he had grown bored of the planet's population. Being born into the lineage of godhood had grown tiresome... so he had solved the problem. When a God grew tired of his followers... one sent down their punishment.

The tea needed more sugar. He brushed the thin cloth shielding his face from the red wind that blew about the wasteland as he added more sweetener. He raised it again to his bloodless lips, his other hand restlessly feeling the horn protruding on the left side of his face. _Better. But it could be better still._

In front of him on his ledge, space rippled as if by a heat wave. He set down the cup, annoyed at the intrusion even if he had been doing nothing.

Kinshiki, loyal servant and member of the clan, appeared through the ripple, and his annoyance evaporated. The other had a look of bewilderment on his gruff face, and they had not had anything to be surprised about for over a century.

"What have you found, Kinshiki?" he asked, steering his spoon around in the china cup.

The older Otsutsuki kneeled on one leg before him, his large body looking awkward in the position of submission before one much smaller than him. "In the central dimension, the link... there are ripples of chakra. Something from the main dimension is caused a ripple of her chakra to glimmer through."

Momoshiki Otsutsuki stood up slowly, thinking. For decades, ever since he had destroyed the last trace of life besides himself and his obedient servant, he had sought for a way to meet up with the mythical origin of life, the mother of their clan, Kaguya. They had searched, finding her private dimensions but finding nothing inside them except glimmers of her existence. The way to the main dimension, that of the planet they learned was called Earth, remained sealed off.

Until now. Someone on the other end was creating chakra vibrations in sync to Kaguya's. If they could tap into a large enough chakra signature, they would be able to directly trace it to her location.

Earth.

Kinshiki knew this, and he said, "We will have to wait for the vibrations to become stronger. Right now they are faint. Whoever is creating them is reaching large levels but not enough, only a small bursts." He licked his lips. "They said she was sealed away by her children. But could she have returned?"

He laughed, and with one gesture he had swept the delicate china off the table, where it tumbled below and shattered in distant tinkles. The desire to keep such precious utensils would soon be gone. "One god against another? I could not hope for such a battle, though the very possibility fills me with glee. No, I suspect lesser beings on the other end are meddling with powers far beyond their capability. They will be easy to subdue."

In front of them, the giant tree had never seemed so pointless. He held a palm above him and collected energy through the red-eye Rinnegan engrained there. "This world no longer holds any promise for us. It is time we move on."

The red ball of condensed chakra reached the size of a small house, and he shot it off to the tree, striking it dead center. The top half of it quivered, then began to fall; the explosion had ripped it in two. "Come, Kinshiki, we will await the next ripple. When it comes, we will be ready. It is time for their planet came to be under the control of a new god."


	4. Chapter 4 - Questionable Descisions

**Review Response:**

 **ZaxIoI:** I'd like to say for everyone that in these circumstances, it's important to remember Pain has killed a LOT of people in the story up till now; everyone in his attack on Konoha isn't revived like how it's happened before; Naruto, Kakashi, Shizune, and many others are out of the story. As for Momoshiki and Kinshiki, you'll just have to wait and see how they fit in, though as you can tell they're not actually involved in the plot yet. And don't worry about not speaking Engish so well, I understand you just fine :)

 **BlackDisciple:** Don't worry, Karin won't have a significant role in this story haha, she just has some small uses here and there. And like I said to ZaxIoI, you'll just have to wait and see how they'll fit into the story, as they're not really in yet.

 **MrTicklesMMM:** It really is just the end of Konoha isn't it, so many significant people are dead. Pain and Konan don't have much opposition from that side of the world anymore- or well we'll see.

 **MegaMindAuthor:** Glad you've enjoyed everything so far! Like I said before I wouldn't allow Momoshiki and Kinshiki's appearance to dissuade you too much, it's just an early glimpse at them. The story isn't altered very much besides what you've probably guessed already, and I've come up with a very simple way for how they'll integrate themselves as villains and character challenges for our main cast.

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

Madara stared for the smallest of moments, then sat down on one of the couches. Konan flicked her gaze to Nagato, who gave a small nod, licking his lips. He rolled himself over to them, moving between the couches.

"Why," Madara said simply.

"I... underestimated the Nine Tails," Nagato said hazardously.

Madara made a show of looking around, then settling the gaze of the single Sharingan through the mask towards Nagato's crippled form. "You lost the rest of the bodies, then. To a boy."

"He was nearing full tailed-beast form," Nagato snapped, and Konan compressed her lips. _Stay calm, Nagato._ "I did everything I could to subdue to it, and it was costly. That's all."

She imagined Madara was smiling beneath his orange mask, and she suddenly disliked him. "You told me it would be no challenge. You certainly subdued the Six-Tails with little trouble. Was fighting a student of your former sensei that much of a challenge-?"

"What are you getting at," Nagato said again. "I will get new bodies to utilize to assist getting the Eight-"

"No, I think not." Madara stood up and moved towards the tongue of the statue's mouth, becoming murky with the background of rain.

Konan looked at Nagato, but he seemed equally puzzled. _What could Madara mean?_ she wondered. _Maybe he thinks Nagato is still tired from fighting Naruto. It's been a while since he saw Nagato himself and not through one of the Pain's; I should tell him he's not as weak as he looks._

"What are you thinking, then?" Nagato asked finally as the rain continued to pour.

"Don't bother getting new bodies to use, I mean. It would just be a waste of life."

Nagato swallowed. "I need them to... exercise my abilities. I'm not exactly mobile."

"Exactly." Madara turned around to face them. "I sincerely doubt any of the other Akatsuki could handle the Nine-Tails as you've stated; you are, undoubtedly, the most powerful Akatsuki member with the Rinnegan. But the Eight-Tails is not so powerful; the others will be able to handle it."

"Your services, therefore, are at an end."

Silence except for the rain. Konan blinked her lidded eyes, then felt the blue paper flower in her hair fall out and onto her lap, the shock was so much for her. _No, he can't possibly mean-_

Nagato exhaled heavily. "I don't think that that time has come yet," he said.

"But I think it has." Madara walked towards them, spreading his hands and speaking softer. "Most of Akatsuki is dead. The troublesome ones like Itachi and Hidan have conveniently been removed as we progress our plans. The unity required by the iron hand of Pain is not necessary. Your power, likewise, is no longer necessary with the capture of the Eight Tails possible with the core members we have left. It _is_ time, Nagato."

Each sentence felt like a punch to the chest for her. Not just because of their outer meaning, but because it was logical. Nagato had, theoretically, served his purpose in the greater scheme of things.

His final actions were right around the corner.

But still Nagato shook his head, looking cross. "I am still needed to use the Gedo Statue's main power: the destruction of one of the Great Nations. You _promised_ me I would be allowed to see our great plan in action before I did this final deed for you."

"You sound like a child," Madara said, sounding impatient for the first time. "'I promised you'- that does not sound like a God speaking."

"And you sound as if you are avoiding wanting to keep your word," Nagato said calmly. "Or maybe it's that you've realized that even though I look physically weak to you, you know that you yourself could still not kill me and claim my eyes for yourself?"

The silence again, and Konan tensed. Madara's hands dropped to his sides, and she readied herself to throw herself before Nagato in case the Uchiha attacked, to prove him wrong-

"That would indeed be a problem of mine," Madara said with surprising honesty, and she shook her head. _Nothing he does will ever make sense to me. First Tobi, then threats. He's worse than Yahiko ever was._ "I merely want you to acknowledge that this time _is_ approaching. You have known from the moment I conceived with you the purpose of Akatsuki and yourself than your life was not to be permanent to the end of our goal."

"And that thought has never drifted from my mind," Nagato replied, his back arched to look straighter, taller. "Did you believe I would attempt to steal the plan for myself? _I_ have never wavered from the agreement we made."

Madara chuckled. "As honorable as ever. Very well; you will remain alive for the demonstration. But after, you _will_ give yourself for the Eye of the Moon. Am I understood?"

Nagato exhaled again. "Yes."

"Wonderful." Madara clasped his hands together, looked over at Konan. "Don't look so pale, dear Konan. I'm not stealing your dear deity today. You can both relax. The Eight-Tails will be in our possession soon: and then we will have peace."

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

He watched as Madara threw himself into the rain, disappearing with his Space-Time Ninjustu. Still, he focused his chakra out into the rain, using it sense for his presence. But no, Madara Uchiha was doing whatever it was he did in his spare time; scheming, perhaps, for new ways to indeed steal Nagato's eyes. Madara was slippery at best, but even snakes had their uses in this plot.

"For a moment, I thought he would attack you here and now," Konan said, leaning deeper into the confines of the couch, relaxing with Madara gone. "He's always struck me as having a hidden agenda."

"I've suspected the same." Nagato slouched in his confines, feeling his bones move in his skeletal frame. "However, he remains a crucial aspect in our plans, and thus nothing can be done to eliminate him at this time. We will have to respect each other for now... and I have no intention of submitting myself to his end goal."

Konan crossed her legs. "I had forgotten that... that was something still in the plan."

"Because it'll never happen," Nagato said snidely. He rolled himself over to the mouth that Madara had exited out of, then tentatively stretched a hand out to feel the rain falling. _Beautiful_. "Madara may have conceived the Eye of the Moon, but he cannot carry it out himself. _I_ am necessary, though he would convey to us that we are the expandable ones." He curled his fist, capturing some of the rain in his naked fist. "Once he explains to me the exact process of the tailed beast weapon, I will prove him mistaken."

She came up behind him. "You plan to utilize Pain again?"

Nagato sighed. "Yes. You know that I cannot do much in this form. Most of the talk back there was to keep Madara at bay, not to actually ward him off. Without the Paths... I am quite vulnerable."

"I would never let him harm you."

He smiled, gave her a side long glance. She looked back determinedly, much like she would've done before that Day. "I know. But I would still like to protect myself." He exposed himself fully to the rain, the water falling and rolling off his skin and his container. He again focused his chakra out into the rain, and through it he felt the thousands of bodies living in the nation. Young, old, strong, weak. Normally he would have had a procedure for choosing the best bodies for himself, but times were short. He had full faith in Akatsuki's remnant; he doubted the Eight-Tails would require much time to be taken.

Through the chakra, he felt a chunin practicing in his home, his determination like a miniature sun in the cold rain. "Put your hand on me," he breathed to Konan, and he felt her warm touch upon his pale shoulder, her robe getting damp with the rain.

"Him?" she asked for clarification, as he finished feeding his intent.

"Yes, the first. He will be honored to have been my first choice."

"Anyone else?" she said it lightly, but he detected the undertone immediately, and ignored it. He _felt_ through the rain, and saw another young man, this one a retired shinobi due to critical injuries through his arm. Pain radiated through it as he hoed a wheat field, through him, filling Nagato with a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Him. The Naraka Path will restore his arm. I will amplify his Pain to be worthy of serving me."

Again she noted his placement, and Nagato chose three more, two women and one more man. Five Pains...

"Who are you choosing as the Sixth?" she asked quietly. "The Deva Path."

The Rinnegan pulsed painfully; a tear was beginning to form in Yahiko had been. Who now lied abandoned, his body probably stowed away somewhere in the remaining civilization of the Leaf Village. He wanted to retrieve it... but to re-use it as the main Pain? He had failed Yahiko twice now, did he deserve to work in his image still?

He stiffened and the Rinnegan calmed. "I certainly won't allow it to remain in the hands of our enemy," he stated. "I will use the other Pain's to recover it... and I will decide what to do then."

Konan nodded but didn't move away from him yet. "Yahiko would want to be apart of us still," she murmured. "What happened in the Leaf was unavoidable-"

"I will make my own choices, Konan. Now go, bring to me... my Pain."


	5. Chapter 5 - God's Work

**Konan**

 **XXX**

The rain did not impede her elegant white wings, made of thousands of small, origami papers. She flew threw the misshapen buildings and skyscrapers, swooping lower and lower. She saw some pointing up at her, and some falling to their knees in instant prayer. It had become a common sight whenever she did her "angelic work" for the God of Amegakure.

She stopped at the house of the one chosen by Nagato, the chunin male. Her wings folded behind her, the extra papers slipping back up her wrists nd others melding as an outer skin. Her Akatsuki cloak remained drenched, and she slicked her short blue hair back, out of her face. Some nervous foosteps moved down the street; the neighbors observing and retreating. Konan sighed, wondering to the boys reaction. Nagato's has guessed the boy would be one of the fanatics, overjoyed at having been chosen this high honor by the God.

Not that he knew what the honor was.

Raising a hand, she knocked upon the door. "I'll get it!" a voice that must've been the boy called, and footsteps sauntered up and opened it.

It wasn't the chunin. A younger child stood there; a younger brother. His welcoming smile melted away into one of solemn respect. "The Angel," he murmered, keeping his eyes down. "I... I revere you. Have you come to bless us?"

A sickly shiver ran up her spine. Being referred to in such high praise never failed to make her umcofrtable, but she kept her face calm and straightforward. "I've come for your brother," she said softly. "May I see him?"

The younger brother's eyes widened, still looking at her feet. "Ye-yeah. Hoshi!"

The brother was there an instant, defensive, the boy from Nagato's sensory through the rain. "Milo, what- oh... my God."

"You have been chosen by your God, your Leader," she told him. "Are you ready to answer the call?"

He swallowed, clearly excited and confused. "I was born for this moment," he said. "To serve my God in any way... my body, my _soul_ , is at his disposal. Just let me say farewell to my parents-"

"No, it's now." She felt no sympathy saying that; after all, she had never been given the chance to say farewell to her own parents. The pain had been great, but she had overcome it. He would too- in one way or another.

The chunin swallowed, then bent down to a knee, next to his brother. "Promise to train just as hard as I have," he said, gripping his shoulders tightly and then drawing him in for a hug. "Tell mother and father I love them dearly, but I have a higher purpose. Tell them, okay?"

"I love you," Milo said, tears streaming down his face. The chunin- Hoshi, Konan recalled- stood up, his face tightly controlled and stepped out of the doorway into the rain to stand before Konan.

"I am ready."

Konan held her hand out. "Then come with me, for the destiny you have been chosen for."

He did so, trembling slightly. As soon as she had a grip on him, her wings flashed out and they took to the sky, the youth crying out but still clinging on. High above the village, sweeping between the buildings.

"The view of God!" she heard him say admirably, his voice cracking with emotion. "Destiny graces me..."

Pain's tower loomed, and they went higher still. The chunin's hand grew clammy with either fear or the chill of the rain, and she held him tighter. "We are almost there," she told him, feeling the uncomfortable feeling again. Surely it wasn't right to take this promising boy away from his family... but it was for a higher purpose. Gods were not bound by morality-

 _Nagato is as mortal as me or this boy_. She quickly shook the thought from her head, and they landed gently upon the tongue of the statue. The boy was trembling again, but she held him still and guided him in. The boy took in the couches, the blank walls, the painted tongue on which they walked, and finally Nagato himself, shrouded in shadow and looking monstrous in shadow, his container deforming his silhouette.

"You are Hoshi Fusagaku?" Nagato rasped, not moving into the dim light.

Hoshi stood taller. "I am. Are you... my Lord?"

"I am. Do you accept the summoning I have asked of you?"

"I do," Hoshi said immediately.

Konan looked away. She didn't need to see the process again. But even as she closed her amber eyes, the past instances appeared in her mind.

"I accept your sacrifice." A loud ringing sound disrupted the silence; in her mind's eye, the man who would become the Preta Path froze as Nagato's Rinnegan glowed purple from the shadows, instantly freezing his body with the intensity of the power inside them.

"Beautiful..." Hoshi's voice said through the Preta Path's lips.

Nagato rolled forward, a chakra receiver appearing in his hand. The Preta Path's eyes widened, as the chakra receiver suddenly stuck itself into his stomach. Hoshi gasped, his voice sounding liquidlike and hoarse. "I live... to serve..."

The Preta path's body slumped, and in reality, Hoshi's body collapsed onto the carpet.

"Konan." She opened her eyes slowly, turned just so. The chunin's body lied on the floor, the receiver stuck so deep into his stomach only the tip was visible. "Move him to the transformation room. I will summon the specialists then."

She did so silently, picking up Hoshi's corpse under the shoulders- but the limbs moved slightly, making her journey easier as Nagato loosely controlled the limbs through the receiver. The room behind the central meeting room opened for her, exposing the metal table, the body bags of the other three Pain bodies she had already brought. She sealed Hoshi's body in one, no longer feeling guilty or ill. It was simply necessary, it was not Nagato's fault that this was the way he had to operate now.

Hoshi's lifeless eyes seemed to look up at her, and she looked down imperiously. "For the greater good," she told it, then left for the last Pain.

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

 _"For the greater good."_ Through Hoshi's eyes and ears, he heard Konan's tinny response to herself. He sighed, wondering if he ought to say anything to her as she passed. But as she reentered, he decided against it. She had done this many times before, had killed or led people to their deaths many times before. This was no different.

"Only one more," he said instead, hoping it would ease her.

She paused. "One more for Nagato, unknown how many for Pain yet."

The wings fanned out, and gone again, leaving him to curl his hands into fists and await the Fifth Pain.

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

 _For the greater good. What a foolish thing to say. Did he hear me somehow?_

The rain felt colder, as if it were a reflection of Nagato's mood now. No doubt it was, and she shrugged it off. She went high into the air, higher than even Pain's tower, before diving straight down. The wind was blindingly cold, the rain coming down slower than she was so that it seemed that it was somehow going upwards to the clouds-

She landed delicately, the origami flower in her hair swaying barely as she landed before the factory. Carts full of bundled wheat we're under a canopy labeled "FROM THE FARMS." The owner of the factory was a middle-aged woman who had quietly abandoned the shinobi way of life, something that ordinarily would have earned an execution if she hadn't turned herself to helping the struggling village in another way, by creating a mass production bread facility.

Konan had left this one for last; the owner, Raon, was highly respected in the village for her works with the facility. Her death would not affect production in the long term; her son was just as strong-willed as she, a young boy who stayed in training to be a shinobi, but had already declared he would take hold of the facility once his mother was gone.

She entered without an invite, not that she needed one. She was the highest authority in the village, asking was only a courtesy.

High-tech machines Konan did not understand were in the center of the converted warehouse, no doubt bought from outside nations that now served here. It was empty, despite it only being a little past the afternoon...

Her footsteps echoed eerily, going between the machines. The manager's office, a boxed windowed space, was in front of her.

"I heard you were gathering people for our God." Konan looked about, unfazed- _so it will be like this._

Killing did not disturb her, nor did resistance. There would always be people who fought against a side, even if that side was completely and utterly correct. It was why Nagato had forsaken Jiraiya sensei's concept of understanding between them. If Raon would choose to defy them-

"Or, should I say _harvesting_?"

The lights of the facility snapped on, and she reflexively shielded her eyes as they burned in the unnatural brightness-

A barely noticeable displacement of air came from behind her, on her left and right sides. She quickly opened her wings, but the kunai that had come from behind had never been trying to hit her body in the first place. They tore through each wings, pinning themselves into a nearby pillar, a thick smart wire at the ends of the kunai holding her in place..

 **"Lightning Style: Thunder Current!"**

The son's voice, or at least a different male. The electricity shocked her damp body dealing twice the damage, but she did not cry out. Pain was nothing new, no matter how extreme. Still, her left leg collapsed under her, the muscles twitching uncontrollably as her nerves crisped.

"We've been studying both you and your so called God for many years now." Konan looked up and saw Raon emerging from the overseer's office, leaning over a guard rail. "We were like many of the others when you first came to power: hopeful you would prove a better leader than Hanzo, someone who would care for and nurture the village." Raon shook her head with disgust. "When instead you fostered a cult of personality around Pain instead of helping our nation with your so called 'great power and wisdom,' some of us just had to take matters into our own hands."

"You're not taking my mother." Konan craned her neck, not seeing the boy. He had placed himself in her blind spot, not that it would protect him very much. He didn't sound very close, either...

"And you won't be taking any other innocent civilians of Amegakure." Raon descended towards her, clearly thinking that Konan was subdued completely. Konan opted to remain silent, allowing the thought to foster while she carefully diverted chakra to her wings. "I know there's no hope of actually killing Pain, but we _could_ kill you, his so called Angel messenger."

Raon grabbed Konan by the chin, forced her to look up. The woman had a shock of closely cropped blonde hair, so much she was inches from being bold. Bright green eyes tried to penetrate and intimidate the amber ones, and failed. Still, Raon smirked. "But that would give us nothing but his wrath, and I have no doubt he would kill us all if it so pleased him. So rather, we hold onto the most precious thing besides his image: you. A God would surely not abandon one of his angels..."

Again, she remained silent. The boy was still in her blind spot, but he did not say anything still. She would have to assume he hadn't noticed the danger yet.

"I'm talking to you!" Raon grabbed her face again. "Are you so miserable you cannot speak to us? I thought you had to ask if I would sacrifice myself for your death cult? Or has roleplaying suddenly fallen out of favor not that you're at our mercy?"

"It is His mercy you will always be under," Konan said calmly. "You will never grow within an inch of his power to challenge him."

"Mother-"

Raon's eyes widened, but by then it was too late. With a powerful flap of now triple-layered wings, Konan snapped the wire holding the wings in place like string. The gust of wind coming off them was enough to bowl over the son, who still managed to recover and land on his feet. Raon backed up two steps, her hand reaching for a kunai at her side while dread fell upon her face like a curtain-

 **"Lightning Style: Thunderwave Repulsion!"**

A thin wave of lightning chakra came from the son, who Konan could now see clearly. It struck her and the tips of her wings crumbled, and her weakened left leg once again wobbled.

Quick as a flash, she reduced the triple layering in the wings to be the usual amount, allowing her to soar into the air again. She swooped upon the boy, catching him in the middle of another set of hand signs. He gasped as the air was knocked out of him, and she took him high to the roof, his hands slapping uselessly against her back-

To her surprise, he suddenly grabbed the right wing, breaking her flying pattern and making her begin to dip-

She went into a corkscrew, and she heard the mother cry out for her son-

Konan stopped the corkscrew right before they landed, swinging her body so the son would take the full impact of the fall. They crunched upon the concrete, and the sound of several bones snapping was audible. she got off the boy, completely unharmed. He looked up at her, the left side of his body bent and broken like some sort of mandhandled action figure. He spat blood defiantly at her, and it landed upon one of the red clouds upon her Akatsuki cloak.

"Enough games," Konan said, turning to face the Raon. The woman stood with a kunai before her, shocked by the change of events. "You have been chosen by Pain. You _answer_ to Pain." She held up a blue-painted fingernail, and from it paper from the outer level of skin formed into several paper shuriken, spinning ominously before her. "Will you submit?"

"Don't do it, mother- aghhhh!" The boy screamed as Konan stepped on his arm, causing the bones to grind.

"Stop, stop!" Raon flung the kunai away, standing palms open. "Just... stop hurting my son."

By all rights, Konan should have slit the boy's throat for defying her and Pain, and no doubt this particular event wouldn't cause him to serve loyally for long. Nevertheless, if she wanted the woman intact he would live for now.

Konan lowered her hand, and the shuriken turned back into slips of paper. "Come to me, then, Raon."

Raon stepped forward, her footsteps shaky with probably fear-

Her amber eyes narrowed. The hands shook as well, but the sleeves remained immobile, not moving like the rest. Something-

The factory owner flung off her outer garment, and Konan's eyes widened with shock. Explosive tags covered her arms, and Raon leaped forward to embrace Konan in an ironic hug. "Die, devil's messenger!"

Struggling did nothing- Raon's grip was surprisingly strong. But she was still touching Konan, and that meant the paper all around her could transfer over very easily. A second passed, and the first explosive tag activated. By the time it was nearing activation, however, paper was slogging the woman like a sentient mold, covering her and coming beneath the tags. They ripped off the skin, but still more were activating-

The first one exploded as the last paper covered the last of the skin, encasing Raon. Konan shut her eyes as the explosions rippled around them causing spots to flicker behind her eyelids.

Eventually, they faded away. She opened her eyes; the paper smoked, but the chakra she had infused into it had caused them only to smolder slightly with the near bombs.

A rattling breath came from Raon, still completely encased in the paper. Konan withdrew the paper from her face, and it lolled forward. Her chest moved slightly, but it was weak and discomforted. The shock of defeat seemed to have broken her down.

"You were foolish," Konan said softly. "You are coming with me now, however, and nothing can change this. You cannot defy God."

"He is... everything but... God," Raon strangled out. But the resistance was indeed gone; Konan formed her wings and held her by the paper and began to lift her up off the ground-

"Hellooooooo!"

She nearly dropped Raon to the ground in shock, but quickly recognized the voice. "What are you doing here, watching me? How long have you been here."

"Long enough to see you still pack a punch!" Zetsu said, grinning. His body emerged from the wall like some sort of rapidly growing plant; Konan noticed his Black counterpart wasn't attached to him, leaving the right side of his face and body deformed. A monstrous sight, but she had seen much worse before. Raon, however, moaned quietly in her arms at the sight. "But I didn't come for that- we need you, right away!"

"We?"

Zetsu nodded. "We've located the Eight-Tails! He's returned to Kumogakure; we will need an extensive operation to capture him. You and Pain will be needed, seeing as our numbers are dwindling-"

"A full scale attack on another shinobi village is not what we're after. The entire continent will turn against us-"

"Who cares? When we have the last tailed beast, they won't be able to match up to us!" Zetsu shrugged again. "Love or hate us, we're bringing them the solution, right? Bring this woman back to the base for whatever it is your going to do with her, then get our Leader ready! We're at the Lightning Ridge, you know the place."

Konan nodded. "We'll... see you there, yes."

With a quick salute, Zetsu disappeared back into the ground, and Konan slowly looked to the motionless body of Raon's son. There would be no time to recover Yahiko as a Sixth Pain...

As if sensing her thoughts, Raon whispered, "Please, no... not him. Anyone else..."

"I thought you wanted us to be fair?" Konan said, surprising herself with the harshness in her tone. "Your son lies here, treason committed. Should I take another who is innocent and done no wrong?"

Raon laughed. "I know you and your god don't care if they're innocent or not... just... not my son..."

Spite, not belief in the words, made her speak as she walked them over to the son. "All will be judged before Pain, innocent or not. For your sake... I would begin confessing your sins."


	6. Chapter 6 - Unending Pain

**On vacation so can't respond to reviews today, I'll be back Sunday to do so!**

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

The four bodies were lined upon the table perfectly, their heads the only thing exposed in the body bags. Naked inside them, but the Akatsuki robes stood ready, hanging.

But he had been staring at them for a while. Konan was late, occupied. What kept her, with those blasted wings of hers? He cursed silently to himself, unable to do anything but wait. The jutsu to revive the bodies as Pain took a day; for him to start now would mean to do four of them now, and the fifth a whole other jutsu.

A sound from the main chamber drew him away from looking down at the young boy, and he rolled himself over to the door, opening it.

Konan was folding her wings, looking stressed. Nagato blinked, his anger fading. "... two? I asked for one."

"He got in the way," she said shortly, dragging them into the room. Nagato followed, eyeing them. One was the woman he had selected, the owner of the bread factory, but the boy... _her son._ "I wanted the son to remain alive to run that factory," he said coldly. "That facility will shut-"

"Sorry that not everything can go your specifications." Konan dropped the bodies on the table. Nagato inspected them closely; mostly unharmed save for minor injuries. The woman's eyes were open with terror, her lips bloodless. _Suffocation,_ he guessed. "I have no use for the boy right now," he stated, putting a hand on the dead man's head. "You can return him to-"

"He will need to become the Sixth Pain, Zetsu has stated they've located the Eight-Tails."

Nagato snapped his gaze to her, his Rinnegan's spirals widening with surprise. "Already? Excellent trackers we have..."

Konan stared. "Did you hear what I said?" she asked incredulously. "It's _now_ Nagato- we can't wait to recover Yahiko."

He shrugged. "I can do with five Pains. It's only the Eight Tails, and this time we have the rest of Akatsuki assisting. There's no point in concealing our operations," he said, noting the look on her face. "Secrecy is no longer as important; simply completing our holy goal is."

"Holy." Was it him, or did her mouth turn a sneer as she said it? "Of course. So, what should I do?"

Nagato looked down at Raon's son, dead by mistake. Why had he resisted? Why did _anyone_ fight him, when his intentions we're so easily discernable? All of Amegakure knew it, and yet pockets of holdouts remained. The presence of a God did nothing to quench the fiery hearts of violence in some.

Maybe it wasn't a mistake. Perhaps the boy was simply fated to die protecting his mother. _Another sacrifice for the greater good_ , he told himself, and his blood ran cold as realized the statement could very much be applied to him as well-

"Go and begin the capture," he told her, unlatching his restraints. The roller's prison-like confinements fell away, and he clung to them, his bony arms filled with chakra to keep him upright. "Pain will arrive as backup if the rest of you cannot handle it."

She nodded. "At once. We will see you then." She exited the room, and he watched her, again lost in past revere. He would never grow tired of watching her form those majestic wings of hers- the sight of it still inspired him that they were, indeed, on the path of a righteous God.

Then she was gone, leaving him quite alone. Nagato closed his eyes; _Watch me, Yahiko, as I carry out your last desire._

And he released his grip on the roller.

But he did not fall. He remained suspended, his legs fragmented and beyond repair, but it was not them he was using. He rose, hovering, just as he had done with Pain above Konoha before he had destroyed it utterly. The five bodies he had selected remained grounded before him as he hovered over them, eyes still closed but the Rinnegan behind the eyelids thudding painfully as he gathered the necessary chakra.

He held his palms outwards, and from them chakra receivers emerged. He glided over to the far right, where the body of the young boy Hoshi lied quietly, his body much smaller in death.

The metal chakra receivers, manifested from his palms, exited them and hovered before him. He pointed with a finger, and a thin bolt of lightning arched out, striking the receivers and cutting them into smaller pieces. The metal yielded, creating many smaller receivers.

Nagato looked down upon Hisho. _"Know Pain, child,"_ he breathed. The cut up receivers vibrated as his other hand reached out and grasped them with the powers of the Deva Path. He closed his fist, and without pause they suddenly stuck themselves into the flesh. All up the arms into the nerves there, into the legs. Then the naked chest, down the thigh, everywhere piercing, splitting skin. Blood oozed and dripped onto the table, and the body groaned and squelched in post-mortem agony. Hoshi's face became peppered in a Y-formation, going from the temple's down the middle, ending right under the nose and ending just before the jugular.

Breathing heavily, he created another chakra receiver, but kept it held in his hand. _"You now know Pain... now you will know it as I have."_ He tapped the receiver in his hand along the protruding, cut up receivers all over the body. As he touched the they began to shiver and vibrate in place, his chakra expanding into not the living tissue, but the chakra points themselves. The body was dead and he could not bring it back to life. But he _could_ act through it, much like a puppeteer would through his puppets.

Though, of course, a puppeteer did not actually become the puppet themselves.

Hisho's eyes snapped open, and suddenly Nagato was looking both at the body and at the ceiling above it. A sad smile came upon Nagato's mouth, and Hisho's slowly warped into the same. His chakra was in, now it simply required the rest of the day to adapt.

 _"You know my Pain... and now you shall live it as I do."_

Breathing softly with anticipation, still suspended in the air, he moved to the next body...

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

 _That Day. Why did it happen?_

High above the clouds where no one could see her was where Konan felt truly able to come to terms with herself. When first she had spread her wings and ascended this far, it had been whether to end her life. When that Day had come to pass.

Hanzo, holding her by her hair as he commanded Nagato to kill Yahiko.

Nagato, blank-eyed, unable to process killing his best friend.

Yahiko, throwing himself upon Nagato's kunai to fulfuill Hanzo's request, knowing Nagato could not do it himself-

That Day, when Yahiko _and_ Nagato had died. The day Pain had been born.

 _It broke him_. She had seen it right away. The absolute carnage of Nagato's wrath after Yahiko had killed himself had shaken her to the core. No amount of destruction she had witnessed during the civil war could be compared to the summoning of the Gedo Statue, the soul-sucking demons that had emerged from its mouth. In those brief moments, she knew gentle Nagato was as gone as Yahiko's lifeless body at his feet.

And he had told her it was time for God to come bring peace to the world.

 _Why did that Day have to happen?_

She did not believe him, and so he had grasped Yahiko's lifeless body in his hands, and right before her tearful and shocked eyes, impaled him with metal spears of cold death. Blood ran from their friend's body, and she screamed at him for mutilating his body, for desecrating his closest of friends-

Then Yahiko had leaned up and gotten to his feet, dusting himself off as if he had simply gotten up from a nap. But when he turned to face Konan's desperately hopeful face, she saw that Yahiko had not returned.

Pain, too, had been born in him.

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

The table was drenched in blood by now, but his chakra had filled Hisho's body enough that he could make blood stop seeping, begin to heal the wounds. He would not make it stand yet, he liked the satisfaction of having them all do so at once.

All five bodies were impaled with receivers, and his chakra flooded all of them. He breathed deeply, closing the eyes of his body and still seeing five different sections of the ceiling above. _A sight baffling for any mortal,_ he thought smugly. _But not for-_

He felt like he was being watched, and he opened his real eyes, looked to his left.

Raon's son, discarded in the corner, groaned.

His concentration broke he was so caught off guard, he had been absolutely certain he was as dead as his mother. But no, the boy _lived,_ Konan had been unable to kill him!

Nagato crashed to the floor, his legs crumbling uselessly beneath him. The sound made Raon's son jolt into fully alert zone, and he scrambled about. He tried to get up, but slipped in the blood pool around him-

"Where am I! Who are you?! What-?!"

The boy scampered to his feet while Nagato struggled to get back into his roller. His hands, however, were also slick with blood and his grip was simply impossible to keep on the handles-

"My- my mother. These people! _What have you done to them?!_ " the boy screamed, his voice shaking with more absolute terror than fury. He had awoken from a place he knew to a world drowned in blood. He backed into a wall, unsure of what to do.

Nagato finaly got a solid grip on his roller and hoisted himself into it. Gasping with the strength needed to physically put himself into it, he slouched into it.

"Did you do this to them!?" the boy screamed, pointing madly at him.

"Yes," he breathed. "I did this to them."

The boy's hyperventilation barely allowed him to get his words out. "You- you're not- are you- are you _him_?"

Nagato smiled wolfishly. "I am He. The real Pain."

The boy's hands curled at his side, and his face unbelievable broke into a sneer. "No, now I know I'm dreaming. Our great and power leader- our _God-_ could not be some weak, skeletal pale man hiding in a tower!"

"Appearances aren't everything," Nagato replied, though he felt a certain annoyance.

"You're- you're a damn _JOKE_!" The boy raised his fists and began to walk over to Nagato, still tired and slumped in his mobile prison.

" _I'LL KILL YOU!"_ Raon's son roared, his voice filling the room with the heat of disbelieving fury.

The hand of Hisho, impaled with chakra receivers, reached out and grabbed the boy's hand. He screamed again, this time in terror. "What the hell- let go!" But though he slapped at the hand, it would not release. Nagato _felt_ the ehat coming off the boy, feeling it through the artificial nerves his chakra receivers created in Hoshi's clammy body.

He increased his grip, and Raon's son screamed again. "LET GO OF ME!" he tried to wrench himself free, but Hoshi's other arm came up while Nagato increased the hold on his wrist even more.

"You'll know Pain," Hoshi said- rather, Nagato said through the lifeless vocal cords. Raon's boy wept, the previous wildfire of anger abruptly vanished.

Hoshi's other hand suddenly stuck itself in his chest, and the boy immediately froze. Something glimmering began to come from his chest, held at the tips of Hishi's finger's. Raon's son began to shake violently, quaking completely as the whole body panicked-

With one last pull, the entire glimmering form came clear. Nagato looked at it through his own and Hoshi's eyes- a soul, light green in color, extracted through the powers of the Human Path that he now exercised through Hoshi's lifeless body.

The Human Path flexed the hand holding the soul while simultaneously letting Roan's son drop to the floor, saliva drooling from his motionless mouth. The head of the soul was held in the palm, and it squeezed. Like some sort of human jello, it took the stress until, until until-

Gone. The soul faded into nothingness.

"I am a joke?" Nagato asked allowed. "No... I am God. Best you not forget it."


	7. Chapter 7 - Kumo Crush

**Review Response:**

 **Transformers:** That's a path I hadn't even considered, mainly because I want to keep it Nagato/Konan-centric instead of delving into sideplots with Sasuke and Danzo. Though you've given me a good idea, as Danzo is in part responsible for the death of Yahiko, so we'll see what happens!

 **BlackDisciple: **In I think a filler, there was a scene showing that the body of an Amegakure kunoichi went through the chunin trials, succeeded, and then somehow died and was given to Pain to be his new Animal Path. Since the circumstances around her death are uncertain-as are the acquisition of the original Pains- I got creative in how the new Paths might be obtained. I skipped the whole delivery thing on the plot pretense that time is short, and the whole process would have to be sped up. As for Madara vs Pain and Konan, well, no spoilers :)

 **ZaxIoI:** My take on Nagato was he was always aware of deaths needed to progress his plan for peace, and outwardly it was just never shown, or even inwardly he tried to ignore it because it was "for the greater good." I like to think losing Yahiko a "second" time is breaking down that inward barrier.

 **lunasalal:** Glad you're liking the story so far! Nagato I always thought never was even aware he had Uzumaki lineage, and I think that that information was only revealed as a passing remark, even though it's obviously really important. So while interesting I don't think he would truly care in terms of character. And like I to BlackDisciple, Obito/Madara is going to learn that not everyone will want to dance to the tune of _his_ games.

 **Guest:** I've seen you sayin you want Nagato and Konan to die like everytime bud I'm kinda miffed on it haha. Whether they succeed or fail remains to be seen, and in a wider scope of things, a success for them can just as easily be seen as a failure for you.

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

"I have a spore, right on the back of his chubby neck!" Zetsu said proudly, gesturing towards the walls of Kumogakure. Konan squinted at them; security was tight, they were lined with shinobi. The only gate was clogged with people attempting to gain entry.

Kisame growled between his shark teeth. "Itachi and I were able to gain entrance to the Village Hidden in the Leaves by placing the guards under genjutsu," he stated. "But these guys won't be as easy to push over, plus they're clearly expecting someone to make a move against them. Us, no doubt."

The three of them debated strategy for a few moments; Madara was nowhere to be seen, though Zetsu claimed he was around. Konan knew he would be doing his own thing; he preferred to operate alone in these sort of situations.

Which left the three of them for now. Pain would arrive once the creation of the Paths was complete, while they had also sent messages for Sasuke and his cohorts to make haste over, thought Zetsu had stated they were somewhere in Otogakure, far from this location. It was up to them to break into those militant Great Nation and capture their prized jiinchurki, the brother of the Raikage-

 _All in a days work_ , she thought, feeling some youthful cockiness creep into her from the past. Normally it was held back in Nagato's presence, but without him around-

"Here's the plan," she said, standing up from their hidden location. "The mountain there is high enough if we drop down we can land on the walls and take out the few guards there. As long as no one sees this, our presence will remain hidden until their bodies are found. By that time, we will hopefully be in range of the Raikage's office and the Eight-Tails in our sights. From there, it's a matter of subduing as quickly as possible before security becomes too numerous."

Kisame hefted his enormous blade. "Well, it's glad to know the Leader's knowledge has trickled down onto you, Konan."

"Not everything is descended from our Leader onto me," she replied friendly enough, pulling her lanky blue hair behind her eyes. "Zetsu, I know you're not a combat type, can you monitor the situation from afar?"

"Of course," the white counterpart said, while the black half said, "We have spores attached to your left arms. If we notice something amiss, we will alert you through them."

"Right. Come, Kisame."

The two began running up the hill; Konan did not wish to leave the other alone by utilizing her wings. The mountain was high, and they had developed a fine sweat as they reached the very top of the grassy ledge. Kumogakure's walls looked as thin as bread crust from this height; and she breathed in the pure, clean air. _To believe one day it will be polluted by the fires of our peace..._

"Ready when you are, Konan," Kisame rasped, sheathing Sharkskin to his back."

"Right." She looked down. There were two guards on a small section between towers, caught up in brief conversation. "Now!"

She jumped, and the scream of wind passing so rapidly deafened her. The ground rapidly approached, and her mind flashed back to the Day, when she had sought to end it all-

The wings snapped meters from impact, coming our horizontally and propelling her forward. The two chatting guards had enough time to perhaps hear the sudden disturbance of air before her razor thin sliced through them both, dropping them at the stomach and drenching her white paper in red.

"Hardly even needed me!" Kisame growled, landing in an area of the wall he had softened into clay upon impact. "Let's move these fellows somewhere private, eh?"

She nodded, grabbing two halves while the shark Akatsuki did the same, tossing them over the ledge behind a building. No one, hopefully, would think to look.

From their arms, a tinny voice belonging to Zetsu said softly, "Good timing, it looks like nobody saw you. You're clear to go!"

They jumped onto the roof and began moving towards the raised mountain at the far end, where the Raikage's office had been dug naturally into the stone. Again, she had no desire to leave Kisame alone, and so she kept pace with him, silent for some time.

"You trust our Leader a lot, don't you?"

She looked over at him; he gave her a sidelong glance, looking truly curious.

"I do, yes."

"Admirable. It had been a long time before I knew such comradeship, until I was paired with Itachi. Seeing you and the Leader together really warms my cold, unfeeling heart."

"Do you miss Itachi?"

"Yes." Kisame looked away from her. "In a way, I suppose I never truly knew him. Partners, but not loyalists. Trusting, but not friends." His beady eyes took her in again. "You and the Leader seem to share those deeper connections."

She nodded, looking ahead again. She knew she was always by Pain's side, but she had never thought it looked as though they were truly that close. And Kisame did not even know that Nagato only expressed himself through Pain; only Madara had ever seen Konan and Nagato side by side, and she knew how he felt about attachments-

"This is your first time without the Leader, isn't it?"

"Not the first, but it's been a long time, yes."

He gave a vicious grin. "Well, I'd hate to shame our boss by outperforming in cooperation, but let's show this Eight-Tails a true fight with the Akatsuki?"

"That's what we're here for."

They jumped swiftly onto the natural stone rise, atop the office itself. A skylight looked down into the Hokage Office itself; Konan could see figures moving inside. She held her hand before her, and a small paper pigeon came from her fingertips. It glided away, searching for an open surface and finding one in a simple window, where it perched while relaying any sound it picked up from inside, as Konan and Kisame observed from the skylight.

 _"... they've name Danzo Shimura s their temporary Hokage while Tsunade recovers. The other Kages are saying we should meet in the Land of Iron."_

 _"Unwise. Danzo's reputation is not a generous one, what is the Leaf thinking?"_

 _"The Leaf almost doesn't exist anymore. About 40% the population was wiped out in that Akatsuki assault! I wouldn't be surprised if they've promoted all their chunin's to jonin to try and make it look like they still have the strength..."_

 _"Enough!"_ Konan recognized only that voice, the deep roughness of the Raikage. She angled herself to look down at a chair surrounde by a half-moon table. Three people stood around it; one she recognized as the Eight-Tails jinchuuriki, looking down at something in his hands. The other two appeared to be advisors or guards of some sort.

"Just give the word when, Konan," Kisame murmured, one hand clutching the handle of his enormous blade.

She nodded, turned her attention back to the situation below. The Raikage was speaking: _"The Akatsuki has gone too far- Bee, you will be coming with us. No more of these wandering shinanigans of yours!"_

 _"But big Bro, you gotta relax and take it slow. The Summit will go fine and I'll be here, let me stay and your journey can be clear-"_

 _"BEE, YOU ARE NOT LEAVING MY SIDE AND THIS IS FINAL!"_

The Raikage took a deep breath. " _Darui, Cee, pack your things and alert the Elders they will have nominal control until I'm back. I may not trust Danzo or the other Kages, but allowing the Akatsuki to overrun our shinobi world will not occur while I'm alive."_

Konan frowned. _They won't be so resistant when our plan is made clear._ She looked to Kisame, and gave a two finger salute. The other nodded, then unsheathed the giant blade with one hand and smashed it down into the skylight.

"What the devil-?!" came from inside; Konan followed the glass down, forming paper shuriken between her fingers as she landed into the office. The two advisors were on either side of her, and she threw the shuriken without pause. They were fast on their feet, however; the dark skinned one pulled out his own large sword and blocked the paper shuriken with it, while the blonde threw himself to the left. However, one of the sharp paper projectiles struck him in the shoulder, and he darted away rapidly to recover-

No, not to recover. Sensing movement directly behind her, she quickly substituted a paper clone in her place while moving to the right. She watched as the clone was obliterated into cinders as the glowing blue fist of the Raikage plowed through it. "AKATSUKI!" he roared, his eyes flicked to the red clouds upon the clone's cloak. "CEE, GET THE VILLAGE-"

"Stick around instead!" Kisame had now jumped in, and with one giant swing he forced the blonde- Cee- to move away from the exit. For now, the battle was being isolated into a two versus four-

The Raikage swung again for her, forcing her to focus on the battle. She batted her amber eyes at his speed, barely getting out of range of his raging fist. _Playing defense in these cramped quarters won't work, I need to-_

Again the Raikage swung, and this time his blow gave her a glancing blow to the left shoulder. The bone instantly broke and she spun away, lights flickering in her eyes. She slammed against the wall and stumbled, trying to realign her vision. The Raikage was charging in for a killing blow, the golden bracelets on his wrists flickering oddly in her vision-

She pulled her head to the left, wrapping her right hand in several layers of chakra-infused paper. The fist of the Raikage tore into the wall like it was plastic, and for a moment he was stuck in place.

With a cry, she grabbed his glowing blue arm with the protected hand and managed to throw the muscled village head around her head and into his deck, which broke in two.

"Gah!" Konan risked a glance to Kisame; the pain was coming from Darui, who's shoulder looked shredded. Kisame's sword had dropped some of it's bandages, and she could just make out blood disappearing into the strange blue spikes that made it up.

The Raikage shifted in the wreckage of his deck, and Konan turned back to face him. A spasm of pain ran through her body from the damaged left shoulder, and she winced. "Troublesome little rogues," The Raikage snarled. "You think you can do Kumogakure like you did Konoha? You will be sorely mistaken!"

"We only want the jiinchurki," Konan said heavily, her vision starting to blur again. The spams, she realized, we're not only being caused by the pain; lightning chakra had gotten into her body, as if she had grabbed a live wire. Her senses were fragmented and her nerves taut with voltage. Still, she held herself upright. "Give him to us, and our village will remain untouched."

"Do you think us for fools?" The Raikage tapped his chest with his uncharged hand. "We know all about your kidnappings of jiinchuriki from all the shinobi nations! The only thing they have a purpose for is for destruction, and on a grand scale." He shifted to point an accusing finger at her. "Your plans lie in devastation on a grand scale?"

 _Some brains behind the muscle,_ she thought with some amusement. _Only pieced together wrong._ "Our desire is peace through the tailed beasts," she began, but the Raikage silenced her with a charging of his full body, turning him into a glowing blue halo. "Bee, are you ready?"

"Always, ya fool!"

Konan stiffened; the jiinchuriki had strangely been out of the fight so far, but now she could see why. It didn't take a genius to know he had been focusing his chakra into his arm, just like the Raikage had done. It glowed so brightly the blue was almost entirely replaced with white-

 **"DOUBLE-"**

 **"-LARIAT!"**

She ducked, but in the moment it took to even conceive the thought of ducking, they were already upon her-

A shadow moved in front of her as the world exploded. her ears concussed with the sound, and she briefly thought back to the battlefields the old Akatsuki under Yahiko had ventured in-

The wall of the office been blown open, and she heard in the distance, "Ya fool, we missed! Hit the stone and now I'm pissed!"

"FOCUS BEE!"

Konan became acutely aware of someone helping her up, but she knew Kisame would not have been able to cross the distance in time. So...

"I must've just missed you," Madara said, his Sharingan's glow fading in his eyehole. "Zetsu informed me of your location and... predicament."

"We have it under control," she muttered, not even sure why she was lying when Madara had just clearly saved her.

"Clearly." Kisame landed beside them holding his blade aloft. They were in the streets of the village, and some onlookers had started to arrive, no doubt drawn by the sound of the office's explosion. The Raikage and the Eight-Tails faced the three of them, quietly conversing amongst each other.

"Alright!" The jiinchuriki raised a hand and made a strange symbol, making Konan frown. The Raikage jumped back, shouting for the citizens to clear the area.

"Interesting," Madara murmured, beginning to roll up his sleeves. "Time to see just what kept Sasuke from completing his mission.

Konan looked from the orange eyehole to the jiicnhuriki. Red bubbles of chakra were forming at his finger tips, and chakra points all over his body-

 _Nagato, we need you._


	8. Chapter 8 - Battle of the Eight-Tails

**XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

 _"WEEEEEEEEE!"_

"He's going straight for a full transformation," Madara snapped, beginning to run forward. "We can't let him transform-"

The Raikage suddenly appeared, quick as a flash, his elbow held out to smash through Madara's face. Konan flinched, expecting a connection, but instead the elbow slipped through Madara's head as if it weren't there. The Raikage's eyes widened in surprise, but he was quick to recover, stopping his momentum and flipping into the air to land a downward smash.

"Konan!" She had heard the footsteps a moment before Kisame and she was in the air in moments, her paper wings flapping. More Kumo-nin we're arriving on the scene, some attacking Kisame but other's trying to hit her out of the sky with long ranged attacks. A thin bolt of lightning flew from the mouth of one, clipping her right wing. She retaliated by sending a several hundred sharp paper discs at the cluster, killing some and making the rest scatter as she recovered-

Her wrist tingled. "Konan, it's Zetsu!" She looked down and saw a miniature Zetsu head there. "Madara wants you to forget about the shinobi and focus the Eight-Tails-"

"If only we had the ability to completely avoid every attack coming our way!" she retorted, dodging another vein of electricity. She swooped down and struck the offender head on, cracking his ribs and sending him sprawling into the others. She caught a glimpse of Kisame shredding another shinobi-

The Eight Tails jiinchurki was no longer visible. Instead, a swarm of what looked like tentacles was rapidly expanding from an epicenter of maroon-colored flesh-

She hovered in midair, taking a collected breath. Madara did have a point; Sasuks's report had suggested the jiinchuriki and the Eight-Tails had actually formed a mutual, cooperative bond. If a full transformation occurred, it wouldn't be as simple as a tailed-beast chaotically fighting. Tactical ability and incredible strength would mean a very fast fight-

 _The other way around if Nagato was here._ She shook her head. _You don't need him, you can do this yourself._

She raised a hand, and paper from her body began to leave and form above her in a rotating spiral, rippling and flapping in the brisk air. She began infusing explosive tags into it, growing the size of the paper wheel. With a heavy throw, she send it spinning on its way down into the mass of tentacles-

 **"Ninja Art: Paper Chakram!"**

The explosion caused an inhumane shriek to emit from the being, and it vanished beyond smoke and flames, recoiling. She saw Madara dodge another attack from the Raikage before countering and throwing the large shinobi into a building. He stared into the smoke, looking no doubt with his Sharingan.

She began peppering another explosive disc. It couldn't be that easy-

A massive maroon fist smashed down onto Madara, completely obliterating his form. She flinched, and she heard Kisame shout in dismay below.

The smoke was clearing rapidly as the Eight-Tails moved inside; the quickest transformation she could have ever imagined. _The power of cooperation_ , she thought dimly, still holding the forming disc above her.

The Eight-Tails roared, tentacles thrashing behind it. However, she noticed it was avoiding hitting any buildings or civilians in the wide street, and it seemed hesitant to move.

 _The jiinchurki won't want to hurt it's village. We'll have to use this to our advantage._

"Let them have it, Bee!" the Raikage shouted.

Two tentacles lashed out towards Konan, and she weaved in between them, running loops while maintain the form of her explosive disc. She flew towards the head of the beast, a horned thing with elongated jaw. It gnashed it's teeth at her and she threw the disc; it dug into the lip of the beat and exploded, making it howl. Two more tentacles joined in trying to hit her out of the sky, and she hugged her wings to her body and dived between them all, right under the neck-

"Knock it unconscious!" the little Zetsu suggested.

"Working on it." She looked back at the jiinchurki, now having some distance. It rubbed the wound to it's lip with one of its massive hands, but now it was turning it's attention to Kisame, who was laboring below against other Kumogakure shinobi.

 _I don't need Nagato._ She took a deep breath and tilted her head back. _Watch me, Yahiko._

She raised both her hands, and the paper began to form into a disc once more. But it was growing larger this time, a massive thing as large as a small house. The explosive tags went straight into the middle, and she used her chakra to sharpen the edges of the paper on the exterior of the swirling mass, increasing the cutting mass tremendously-

 **"Ninja Art: Worldly Paper Chakram!"**

She flung it, feeling exhaustion in her body from the precision needed for the attack. The Eight Tails obviously heard the incoming attack, and it raised three tentacles to ward it off. The cutting ability of the chakra, however was beyond even the strength of even hardened steel. It savagely ripped through the tentacles, and the Eight-Tails howled again before turning to face her entirely.

The explosion caused the air to vibrate and burn, and she shielded herself with crossed arms.

The Eight-Tails emerged from the smoky orange, a deep gash in it's chest and it's entire body blackened and bruised. It roared and a hand smashed down upon a building, seemingly trying to use it for support. Screams came from the village, while she thought she saw the Raikage waving his arms at them at his soldiers-

"AKATSUKI!" the Eight-Tails roared, and she saw it snap to him. It's jaws widened, and she saw the Raikage shouting at it-

A black mass was forming rapidly in it's mouth, a ball as dark as the night sky. Her eyes widened, and she began to climb-

One of the intact tentacles grabbed her, and she gasped as her chest creaked with the pressure. _I got careless-_

Her eyes widened as she saw the ball reach completion, and she knew nothing would survive wherever it struck-

It flew towards her and her eyes shut-

Nothing happened. She opened them and saw a body in front her. Not Madara, not Kisame. Short orange hair was close to the head, held upwards by a headband. The Akatsuki cloak draped its shoulders-

"You should have waited until I was fully ready," it grunted, the tailed beast ball held somehow in it's hands. She saw that it was actually being sucked into his palms, slowly but surely as he stood upon the tentacle holding her. It grew smaller and smaller, shrinking until nothing remained and the slack-jawed Eight-Tails stared at them, it's lidless eyes glazed.

"You will know Pain, Eight-Tails," Pain said, in the body of Raon. "This whole village will."

 **XXX**

 **Pain**

 **XXX**

The Preta Path, using Raon's dead body, summoned a chakra receiver jammed itself into the tentacle it was standing on, and the Rinnegan flared in intensity, shocking the Eight-Tails into releasing Konan. She recovered mid-fall, growing her wings again out of paper and touching down on the ground.

The other four Pain's - minus the unmade Deva Path - came beside her. All the bodies brought to him by her, he saw her amber eyes crease through five different sets Rinnegan. "I told you to wait."

"You told me you'd come as backup." She gestured lamely up at the Eight-Tails, a crooked, thin smile on her blue lips. "Back us up."

A displacement of air came directly beside Konan, and Madara stepped out., looking completely unharmed. "I was waiting for you to rejoin us," he said coldly. "Konan and Kisame attempted to capture the beast themselves, and caused it to transform. You're the only one who has a chance of subduing it. So do it."

"That's why you allowed Kisame and Konan to keep fighting it alone?" Konan snapped at the Uchiha.

The other did not reply but, instead turned to the Animal Path, a former jonin with formerly spiky white, now orange hair and very thin face. "You need to seal it forcefully. Now."

Pain remained mute, but two of the bodies looked to the jinchuuriki. It was holding the wound Konan had inflicted it. Dear Konan, attempting to bring it down on her own. She was his messenger, but that was all unfortunately. Compared to Himself...

The Animal Path detached itself from the others, moving down the street alone towards the Eight Tails. The beast saw this and roared, but the Path did not so much as flinch.

 **"Summoning Jutsu!"**

A giant column of smoke came right in front of the Path as the summoning seal spread out before it. The Eight-Tails reared itself to its full height, nursing it's wounded tentacles behind it. Kisame ran through the smoke towards them, bloody and his left arm and leg held loosely as if broken. "Good to see the Leader has come around-" he began, but the Human Path that had formerly been the chunin Hisho raised a hand for silence.

"Nagato-" Konan said, sounding stunned.

"What the hell is that doing here?" Kisame exclaimed, spitting blood between his teeth.

The Gedo Statue rested on one knee, looking more human than it ever had. It faced the Eight-Tails, head lowered, as if in prayer.

As one, the Pain's leaped forward to join the Animal Path in climbing atop it, two on each shoulder and the Animal Path on the summoning's head. "Rise."

The Statue responded, rising to it's feet. The eyes cried blood; lifelike, it sensed the power of the Eight Tails before it and hungrily screamed at it, like a vulture waiting for it's prey to die. Pain looked at the Eight Tails hesitate, clearly insure of what attack to make on the manifestation.

From afar, a shriveled man called Nagato raised his head and whispered the jutsu into the silence.

The jaw of the Gedo Statue opened, and for a moment nothing happened. The Raikage and his subordinates watched, as unsure of the situation as their giant ally.

Glowing purple chains sprung out of the mouth of the statue, and they wrapped themselves around the body of the Eight-Tails with a life of their own. The Eight-Tails roared, trying to form another Tailed-Beast Bomb-

The Five Pains increased the intensity of the purple chakra chains, and the bomb crumbled away into nothingness as the Eight-Tails shrieked again, trying to use it's tentacles to break the chains. Instead, the chakra and strength was sucked out of them as well as the chains multiplied, grabbing the tentacles as well.

"WE ARE GOD!" The Animal Path shouted at everyone watching. "THE WORLD WILL KNOW THIS, AND THROUGH THIS KNOWLEDGE, THEY WILL COME TO COMPREHEND PAIN!"

"Kill those Akatsuki!" The Raikage shouted, leaping forward. The Pain's knocked them aside with more whip-like chains, the chakra-absorbing ability sucking dry the weaker and leaving the stronger gasping for breath on the ground.

The Eight-Tails was losing strength now, it's resistance fading as it was slowly pulled in by the chains. The Pain's stared at his remorselessly, ignoring it's lesser pain. It knew it did not compare to what he had done; otherwise, it would have been able to put a stronger fight. Therefore there was nothing to pity about the beast's predicament.

With a final hair-rising cry, the Eight-Tails footing suddenly failed on the ground and the chins rapidly sucked it in, the large body being impossibly squeezed into the mouth of the Gedo Statue. In seconds it was gone, only it's cry remaining.

"It is done," Pain whispered into the daunting silence. "At last... peace has come."

The Gedo Statue violently twitched on it's own accord, and the Pain's slipped off at the sudden change. They flipped harmlessly onto the ground I front of it, but the pairs of eyes widened in confusion. _What's happening to it?_

A scream of absolute agony came from the statue, and large goblets of blood fell to the ground from it's eyes. Its hands went to its head and there was tearing sound, which Pain quickly identified as the mouth ripping itself apart.

 _Is the power too much for it too handle?_ He questioned. _No, it was_ built _for this purpose. What is happening to it, is it actually alive?_

"Control it, Nagato!" Madara materialized beside him, his Sharingan looking up at the Statue dauntingly. "With all the power of the Tailed Beasts, it will begin to... weaponized. You need to keep it contained and under control."

"What's happening to it?" Pain asked calmly.

"It's weaponizing."

"Meaning? It is not time to strike the large nations, not so soon. Or are you telling me the development of this weapon is uncontrollable?"

Before, Madara was able to talk down to the skinny man that was Nagato easily. Standing before five powerful bodies reanimated through the great power of the Rinnegan was certainly intimidating. It was, Pain assumed, the power of a God's presence. Madara said evenly, "It can be controlled. But you know we have agreed it will be _I_ do ultimately do so-"

The Gedo Statue roared and fell to it's knees, hands splayed in front of it like a being that had took a great blow to the chest. Madara swiveled to look at it, seemingly confused. "What-?"

Pain narrowed his eyes. _What is this?_

It was like Madara's space-time ninjutsu, but seemingly more structured. The air ripped with small white lines at the bent head of the statue, which continued to scream, its breaths blowing hot gusts of air that blew their cloaks wildly about them.

Then, for the first time since the destruction of the Deva Path, Pain felt an incredible feeling in the bodies he exercised himself through: _cold_. The Rinnegan widened, and Madara raised an uncertain hand up before him, as if to ward off the jutsu.

A white hand emerged from the rip.


	9. Chapter 9 - True Divinity

**Review Responses:**

 **MegaMindAuthor:** Understandable, I went on the pretense that most sensory ninja aren't powerful enough to have a 24/7 sensor jutsu going, I think that was exclusive to Karin. So, I imagined C would not be actively trying to sniff out intruders, with the heavy exterior security in place. Otherwise, thanks for the encouragement.

 **BlackDisciple:** The whole infiltration process I thought I went through a littlee quickly too, but I also didn't think two S-rank shinobi would have much difficulty, even in a village on high security; just look how Itachi/Kisame and Hidan/Kakuzu penetrated the Land of Fire so easily before. I also wanted attention given to comradery between them, since Konan was always so reserved when shown. As for the Gedo Statue, I'm basing it off the appearance it had when Obito summoned it when he fought Naruto, Guy, Kakashi, and Bee. A monstrous but deformed humanoid figure that's in obvious agony as the transformation to Ten Tails occurs.

 **ZaxIoI:** Madara definitely would not be able to handle the Eight Tails alone; the more help he has, the better, so he saved Konan.

 **Ninja Cat-Sif:** Thanks! Glad you like my portrayal.

 **lunasalsal:** Don't want to reveal too much, but as you'll see in this chapter I really want to test Nagato's limits.

 **YahiKonaNagato21:** Thanks!

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

She leaped over the massive, writhing Gedo Statue that had haunted the darkest depths of her mind since it had appeared that Day. Knowing it was controlled did little to calm her; Pain, she had realized long ago, was a much different person than Nagato.

As she landed beside them, the first thing she saw was that although there were six bodies standing there, one of them was Madara. Five Pains.

She grimaced. _He was still able to bring down the Eight-Tails without the Deva, however. But he shouldn't have risked it just because he wants to get ahold of Yahiko that badly._

Then she took in the rip in reality coming from the head of the bowed-over Statue's head.

Something was coming from it.

Kisame landed beside her, his beady black eyes staring. "What in blazes is _that_?"

"We're about to find out," Madara said, and the Human Path of the Pain stepped forward in front of all of them, cloak rippling from the currents being released from the portal.

The white hand that had been coming from it grew into a wrist, an arm, half a body. A whole fluid motion as the being emerged from it, staggering only slightly as it emerged. Konan frowned, the piercing on her lip feeling chilly against the skin. It was like nothing she'd ever seen before: completely snow white skin in an elegant, equally white robe. A thin veil shielded his face, but Konan could still see the paleness of a pair of Byakugan behind them.

As well as the two large horns emerging and holding the veil upwards.

"What are you-?" the Human Path began, but he broke off as a _second_ being emerged from the portal. Konan saw giant arms of the same color, giant _everything._ No veil covered his gruff face, and one horn fell down to cover one eye, while the other observed them all with another Byakugan.

 _I thought they were unique only to the Hyuga Clan?_

The Human Path remained silent, perhaps waiting for a third being to emerge, but nothing did so. The giant being moved to stand before the smaller one, while the latter raised a hand and brought it down, ending the portal. The Gedo Statue growled, but strangely grew still-

"What are you?" the Human Path asked.

Neither of the beings made a verbal response; the bigger one placed itself between fully between them all and the smaller, while the smaller-

Her jaw dropped, but she quickly caught herself and closed. Still, her eyes watched, wide, while beside her Kisame gave an exhalation of wonder.

The elegantly horned newcomer finished rising into the air, floating easily. Konan had seen Pain do the same with the Deva Path, but the effort was strenuous and caused Nagato back home great stress. Besides that, flight had been something of impossibility, known only to be done by the Sage of Six Paths-

"What are you beings?" Pain asked again, stepping forward. Again, no response. The floating being raised a hand and placed it on the head of the Gedo Statue, and Konan thought she heard it whimper-

The pale white hand began to glow purple, and Konan felt her heart stop for a moment.

Madara confirmed it for her; his Sharingan had been trained on the other the entire time. "How?" he whispered. "Rinnegan, in the palm of his head- he's absorbing chakra from the statue, impossible-"

The Human Path stepped forward, and the larger newcomer opened his hand. In it, a large red battleaxe formed, created entirely of chakra. Konan had obviously seen Pain do the same with the creation of metal chakra receivers, but not something as complex as a weapon like that. It was screaming danger-

"I ask you again- what are you two?"

"Kinshiki, silence it."

"Yes, my lord."

Konan blinked and almost missed the red axe swing in a full arc, slicing through the Human Path-

No, not through it. The speed of which they were moving was so fast that her eyes were playing tricks on her. The Human Path had ducked, and from it's palm a long chakra receiver spear manifested and shot toward the shoulder of the larger being?

"Rinnegan?" Konan drew back, feeling ill. Somehow, the smaller horned being had dived down in time from absorbing chakra from the Statue to catch the spear in it's left hand, stopping it from hitting it's companion. "You possess them?" it asked as the chakra receiver literally melted in its grip. It finally looked at all of them, brushing past Konan and Kisame with no interest, pausing on Madara a second longer, before staring at each of the bearers in turn. "Ten Rinnegan?"

"Who are you beings?" the Human Path asked calmly, withdrawing what remained of the receiver back into its palm. Konan had to wonder if Nagato was truly this calm back where he was.

The thinner being stopped floating, resting upon the ground in simple but elegant sandals. "How have you come to possess the eyes of divinity?" he asked, sounding confused. "You are just men."

"How did _you_ come to possess them?" Pain countered.

An uncomfortable breeze blew past them, and Konan became acutely aware that the citizens of Kumogakure were observing everything unfolding. She wondered if reinforcements for the Raikage were coming, or if they, too, were simply watching in stunned disbelief. Never had she expected _this_ was what the outcome would be of finally sealing the beasts-

The smaller being cocked it's head, seemingly thinking and choosing its words. Konan had the impression it was growing bored. "I have been born into the line of divinity. I am God of the planet existing in a dimension different of this one. I have come to claim this as my new ground of feeding."

"Feeding?"

"Yes, feeding." The Byakugan activated, the nerves around it crunching audibly. "On chakra. I am a hungry being, human. As a possessor of the Rinnegan, you will make an exciting first meal."

"Wait!" Madara stepped forward swiftly, sounding for the first time uncertain of himself. "Beings- creatures-"

"I am Momoshiki, human. Step out of the way." The being raised it's right hand, exposing the Red Rinnegan emplaced there-

"What is your interest in the Statue!" Madara shouted.

Momoshiki rolled his eyes impatiently. "Kinshiki!"

 **XXX**

 **Pain**

 **XXX**

The appearance of the two was a mystery to him, but he was well prepared to accept that the two beings- aliens, even- had hostile intentions. As the one called Momoshiki gave the word, he was already ready as, with a nod, the larger being swung the axe again, going straight for Madara. It slipped through him easily as he activated the ability of his Mangekyo Sharingan, and the one called Kinshiki stumbled forward, got off guard by the clear miss.

"Konan, Kisame, stay back!" The Five Pains sprung into action all at once, the Naraka Path taking a rear position as the Asura and Animal Path leaped at Kinshiki to help Madara, while the Preta and Human sprang for Momoshiki.

Momoshiki laughed horrendously, sounding metallic and malicious as he raised the right Rinnegan and unleashed a wall of fire at the duo. The Preta Path raised its hands and took in the brunt of the flames, sucking them into its palms with the chakra sucking ability of the Path.

The Human path slipped below the flames and two chakra receivers lanced out and tried to stick themselves into Momoshiki from beneath.

He took to the air again, floating high out of range of the receivers, still laughing as this time he raised his hand and summoned an enormous ball of hardened earth above his head.

 **"Summoning Jutsu!"** the Animal Path splayed its hand upon the ground, and the giant green bird emerged in the gaze of enveloping smoke, screeching.

Behind the, cries of alarm from the onlooking Kumogakure citizens sounded and they began to flee- where, he did not know or care. They were beyond him concern or attention now. All that mattered was subduing these two-

With a roar, Kinshiki's axe glowed brightly as it changed into a battlehammer, and he swung it straight into the Asura Path. He raised the arms before it, shaping the mechanical infinities beneath it into a solid shield. The hammer struck with enough force to send the Asura Path flying into a building, but it was back on its feet in the rubble in a moment-

It stumbled, and all the Pain's froze and twitched for a second.

Somewhere, in the distance, the man called Nagato scarcely breathed, his body's limps screaming in protest at the attention and chakra bein drawn from it all at once. Sweat dotted his face, but he rallied himself-

The giant boulder fell, and it rushed the Preta Path before it could move out of the way. The sound of the stone ripped apart the ears of those nearby, and stray rocks pelted the onlookers and fighters.

The Naraka Path moved forward and helped the Human Path try and move the rubble of the boulder off the corpse. Momoshiki laughed again and raised a hand to blast them, and Pain cursed the lack of the Deva Path, knowing how quickly they would be able to move the boulder otherwise-

With a screech, the summoned bird opened its beak and swallowed Momoshiki midair, causing the young being to vanish without a sound as it immediately took the air, seeking to take them far from the battle.

Pale skin showed through the rock, and the Naraka Path held a hand up to summon while the Human Path dragged the crumpled body of the fallen Preta to its feet. Konan landed beside and grabbed the other hand-

"I told you to stay back!" Pain snarled through the Human Path. "This is no battle for you!"

"Good thing I'm not fighting!" she shot back. "You don't have to prove yourself by doing this alone-"

There was an awful, distant squelching sound, and they all looked up. The Rinnegan strained; the Sun was being briefly eclipsed by small dots of black that were rapidly growing larger-

The first droplet of blood struck, and then it was a brief rain of red liquid upon them all. Konan pulled the defeated Preta up, and the Naraka took it under the armpits and away from the fight.

With Kinshiki, Madara had two kunai and was trying to force an opening with Kinshiki, utilizing the Sharingan to analyze attack patterns and find an opening. The issue was, the larger being repeatedly changed weapons and thus changing the attack pattern. The Sharingan kept up, but Pain knew that Madara was straining.

The Asura Path transformed, it's two arms becoming four and the fingertips of each hand becoming tiny needles. From its back, a long tal emerged, ending in a pointed, saw-blade like weapon. It's feet boosted with rockets as it charged towards Kinshiki. A red hue appeared on the alien's back and several weapons burst forth from it: swords, axes, hammers, sickles, all flying high into the air and descending down like a rain more deadly than the bird's blood-

 **"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"** Pain whipped the head of the Naraka Path around as it's summoning of the King of Hell took in the broken body of the Preta. Kisame's palms met as he finished the extensive hand signs, and the great billowing beast of a jutsu crashed down upon Kinshiki. The being disappeared in the haze of blue, and while openly he gave Pain a look of annoyance, back home the man called Nagato gave a sigh of relief at having some of the strain removed temporarily-

The water began to move upwards diagonally to the right, and the Pains collectively watched as it disappeared into the left palm of a returned, blood-soaked Momoshiki. The previously white garments were stained with red and gore, although the veil remained perfectly in place and the face beneath it stainless.

"You annoy me." Momoshiki raised the right hand and the water dragon emerged right back out of the Rinnegan there. _No hand signs, just an intake and outtake instantly of jutsu?!_ Pain had seen jutsu's performed without hand signs, of course, he himself had mastered the five nature transformations and before the birth of Pain been able to do basic jutsu like so- but the water dragon jutsu required over fifty signs, and yet this man- no this _God-_

"No... _I_ AM GOD _!"_ The Human Path leaped into the air, the body of young Hoshi mangled by piercings and encased in inhumane rage, a fist drawn back to strike Momoshiki across the face-

Momoshiki's right hand grabbed him by the cheeks, the small left hand somehow powerful enough to hold him suspended. "A God? You know nothing of divinity, mortal." He cocked his head, the mouth splitting into a cruel smile. "You will make my first meal," Momoshiki breathed, and suddenly the Human Path's vision began to turn red, the body feeling incredibly discomforted-

The other Pains watched as it disappeared completely, sucked like jutsu into the left hand. The sounds of battle faded; they all stared, unsure as to what they were witnessing. The Human Path had shrunk into a small red fruitlike object, jiggling in the palm of Momoshiki's left hand. Like a small child, the being hungrily raised it to his lips and bit into it, devouring it one bite at a time.

 _It's not human._

"Ah..." The meal was finished. Momoshiki's body seemed to ripple, the fabric covering him cleaning itself of blood. "Ah... yes... sweet." It looked down upon them, a sadistic smile as he lowered himself. "Sweet. What a peculiar ability- I'll use it gladly, mortal."

Kinshiki, wet but alive from Kisame's attack, jumped back, clearly anticipating something. Madara disappeared entirely, vanishing into his space-time ninjutsu and leaving Kisame, Konan, and Pain alone-

There was a gasp, female. The Asura Path was closest; Momoshiki stood before Konan, grabbing her head by the hair. From her hands long paper swords emerged and slashed, but the other literally batted them away.

"Such interesting jutsu. You humans make such delightful meals." Her body began to ripple-

"NO!" The Asura Path's entire arm turned into a shining metal sword, and in the distance the man called Nagato poured as much chakra possible into it. The other Pain's stumbled, falling to a knee or even to their face, but the blade glowed a deep, harsh purple. Momoshiki's Byakugan must've seen it, for he suddenly released Konan-

The blade sliced through the arm, taking it off at the elbow. Momoshiki bellowed, an ear-splitting noise that made the Asura Path flinch-

The scream was only the first wave; the chakra repulision coming from it was like a tornado. The man called Nagato struggled to get his chakra back into the other Pains, to get them clear. It was like his Almighty Push that had destroyed Konoha, but there was none of the elegance of control in the technique. Momoshiki's scream carried on the chakra explosion, the rage, horror, and hatred feelable in every inch. The Asura managed to tuck its weapons under the skin, scooping up Konan and going for distance. Kisame was already scrambling for space-

It was like the world was ending. Kumogakure certainly was; buildings, people, the earth itself was being blown away. The Asura Path ran as fast as it could with Konan in its arms; the other Paths also ran, not knowing where but knowing only to escape, to get away from the death so close behind them-

"We won't make it," Konan said weakly; she seemed scrambled and dazed from Momoshiki's attempt to suck her in. "Nagato-"

"Konan, hold onto me!"

She did so without question, her head bundled against the chest of the Asura, and though he could not feel it, the man called Nagato smiled slightly.

The feet of the Asura turned into rockets, and they were propelled far, far, _far_ away from the wrath of Momoshiki, as the Village Hidden in the Clouds ended behind them.

 **XXX**

 **Momoshiki Otsutsuki**

 **XXX**

When the scream and **Kami no himei** had also concluded, there was nothing surrounding him but the smoke of destruction. He breathed heavily, his teeth gnashing against each other still. They would _pay_ for daring to wound him, to stand up to him-

Kinshiki landed beside him, quickly knelt before him. "My Lord..."

Momoshiki snarled, "They had the audacity to harm me-"

"I know, Lord."

"To defy me-"

"Yes, Lord."

"To _run away_!" He needed some way to vent his rage; the destruction of the civilization around him was simply not enough. He sensed survivors; they would have to supplement him. But as he scanned, he noticed something else. He turned to Kinshiki, a confused smirk on his face. "And they took Kaguya with them."

Kinshiki nodded. "It disappeared sometime during your final attack. They must have summoned it away; I sense it nowhere near us."

"It cannot remain hidden, we need only search the surrounding lands for its signature. Something so powerful and malevolent cannot remain hidden from us." He flexed his right hand, feeling the power of the Tailed Beasts he had absorbed. "And they will need to return to me if they wish to unleash her power. I took a considerable sum before I drew my attention to them." He licked his lips, feeling the sweet aftertaste of the human he had absorbed. A different taste than that of the old planet, to be sure, but good nonetheless.

He stooped down and picked up the arm they had dared to sever from them. "Kinshiki?"

"Of course." The other grasped it gently in his large hands and pushed it into Momoshiki's stump. Immeaditely the flesh began to morph and rejoin, as if grateful to be coming back together. Kinshiki gently released, and it remained in place, slowly reconnecting. It would take a day perhaps to fully heal and reconnect himself to the Rinnegan in his palm, annoying to the point he felt his fury bubble inside him again-

"I must feed, and then rest. Allow my arm to heal."

"Then I will make this self-proclaimed God yield before me. Until then, this world may remain at peace."


	10. Chapter 10 - Madara's Solution

**Sorry about the wait, I've been moving into a new apartment and getting ready for my next year of uni. I'm going to be cutting back releasing two chapters every weekend to one, so every Wednesday and probably Saturday. Thanks for understanding and tuning in!**

 **Review Response:**

 **BlackDisciple:** Thanks, I wanted to convey a feeling of resistance but ultimate helplessness in this fight and it sounds like I got that off smoothly. Glad I was also able to clarify your earlier confusion. Thanks for reading!

 **lunasalsal:** Not to go off too much of a tangent, but while the Boruto anime is pretty lackluster, I thought the movie was very nostalgic and well done, I'd give it a watch if only for a look at the past with new content. Regardless, Momoshiki and Kinshiki are definitely on another level compared to our Akatsuki anti-heroes, and they'll have a good challenge trying to overcome them. Won't say much else because it'll be answered, but I definitely wanted Tobi to come off as a scumbag in this work. As you can probably guess, he's just as big a problem as Momoshiki for this story.

 **MegaMindAuthor:** I see where you're coming from this, and in such a short amount of time compared to the extraction of the Nine-Tails in the movie, it's definitely an error I just had to try and wiggle around. Don't want to say much else because it'll all be answered in time, but I thanks for the compliment of integrating canon material. In fanfiction, I feel that it's something incredibly important for fans like us to help the story feel more connected to the actual universe, and it's something I strive to do when I can.

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

The Asura Path's bare arms chilled where they touched her skin through the shredded Akatsuki cloak. The Rinnegan looked dead ahead, unseeing but seeing through distant Nagato as they outpaced the chakra detonation. When they had gotten far enough, they stopped by a pile of large boulders, and he set her down.

"What were they?" she asked as soon as she was on her feet again, shaking slightly. Her whole body felt weird, displaced. The aftereffects of the Rinnegan's attempt to suck her in? Or her own fear of witnessing the colossal battle?

She shivered. _Kumogakure..._

She looked back. Smoke polluted the air where Kumogakure once was. _All those people weren't supposed to die..._

"They would've died eventually." She looked up; the Asura Path had been silent so far, but now it was refocused to her. No doubt Nagato had been diverting his attention elsewhere. It annoyed her slightly she had hadn't been the priority-

"What do you mean?" she said instead.

The Path looked at her blankly. "The Tailed Beast weapon would eventually have killed them," he said as if it were obvious. "Humanity is doomed to wipe itself out eventually. Even so... this was not according to plan."

She frowned. _He always get's so philosophical in this state._ "Where are the other Pains?"

"They made it out, except for the Human Path obviously." He turned to look at the devastation they had managed to avoid. "I also had the Animal Path summon the Gedo Statue away. The detonation doesn't seem to have harmed it at all... but I can already tell that when that being Momoshiki began to absorb from it, he took too much tailed beast chakra out. He stopped the weaponization process at the very least."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they will have to be confronted again." He turned to his left. "You left so soon, I was beginning to wonder whether you had killed yourself in your dimension out of fear."

Konan turned to see Madara finish swirling into existence, and she wondered how she hadn't noticed him before. Her sensory skills were normally so sharp- she forced her trembling body to still. _What's wrong with me? You've seen Pain in action before, you've seen God-_

 _He's not God. He's a man._ They... _they were something else._

They were talking, and she tuned back into what they were saying.

"...not normal shinobi!" Madara said, agitated and pacing. Konan could not recall the ever having wavered from his calm, methodical tone; it unnerved her to see him so disturbed in turn. "There was no point in staying to fight!"

"I don't believe they were shinobi at all," Pain replied, still gazing out upon the destruction. "They came through a dimension tear, much like your own space-time ninjutsu. And the way they spoke resembles no dialect I've ever seen. They are undoubtedly of another dimension. Another world, even."

"Aliens?" Madara demanded incredulously, running a hand through the visible hair behind the mask.

Pain shrugged. "All I know is they're dangerous, and that the smaller one now has a large chunk of the Tailed Beast chakra inside it. Enough to have stopped the weaponization process."

If the mask was not on, Konan was certain Madara's face would've paled noticeably. "You mean... the Eye of the Moon cannot proceed..."

"Unless we take the chakra back from them, yes."

Silence for some time. Madara leaned against a rock, speaking to his wrist. "Zetsu, have you found Kisame?"

"He was caught at the edge of the blast. He's unconscious, but alive. I'll bring him to you?"

"Back to Amegakure Tower, Zetsu," Pain said loudly. "We will have to pull back to there for now. Gather everyone and decide how best to approach the intruders."

Konan looked up at the Asura Path. He was looking down at her. "Would you mind supplying me with a lift this time around, Konan?"

"Of course."

Madara looked at them. "You have a solution then, Nagato?"

"Pain finds a way," the other said pointedly, then allowed Konan, wings extended, to take him under the armpits and away from the scene.

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

 _These past few weeks have really been testing my limits._ His bones groaned as he tried to move his body inside the prison, feeling more self-conscious than usual about his body's fragile state. He had managed to lose one Path already, the Human Path belonging to the eager, loyal shinobi who had been called Hoshi...

His fists clenched and unclenched uncomfortably. _Another loss for the greater good..._

Many deaths had been done for the sake of progression of Madara's Eye of the Moon Plan. Madara and Itachi Uchiha had wiped out the Uchiha Clan. Akatsuki had captured and sealed every jiinchuriki. Pain had wiped out Hanzo and every last being loyal to him. He had never allowed them to bother his conscious, knowing regret would only weaken his resolve.

 _But w_ _ill it end?_ His fists clenched. After all he had done, he still childishly asked himself the same question...

 _No. Only slowed, delayed._ Pain blossomed in his mind- the persona, the _God._ _Hatred will always be present..._

He thought back to when he had stabbed Naruto Uzumaki through the hands, pinning him to the ground, standing over him in Yahiko's body as the Deva Path. _"So we believe that human beings simply cannot understand each other. And they never will. This shinobi world of ours is ruled by hatred... and hatred alone."_

But Naruto had still doubted him, doubted _reality_. And while it had been foolish, Pain had been able to acknowledge the optimism he had shared in his own youth. That Yahiko had held onto even as he grew older.

 _Yahiko did not understand the greater good_. No _one DOES-_

He forced himself to relax. Pain was his ally here, not blind fury. He breathed, allowed the Rinnegan to open and take in the surroundings of his private quarters. Not even Konan was allowed here, in his most inner sanctum. The walls were blank durasteel, a simple bed in the middle that he could not even use. A hollow room with a table that held only a photo of Jiraya-sensi, Yahiko, Konan, and himself all in lively, neon green frog suits smiling with genuine happiness at the camera.

He stared at it, feeling the familiar ache of contained power the Rinnegan gave off in his sockets. Their might was immense, and he felt somewhat ridiculous having the eyes of the Sage of Six Paths being used to look upon a childhood photograph he hadn't been able to let go of-

 _Where did things go wrong?_

 _Why are they going wrong now?_ the persona of Pain asked loudly in his mind.

He opened the door out of his sanctum, began making his way up to the mouth of the Pain statue, where Konan and Madara would be returning to. _Those two..._

In ancient history, old myths and whispers that ran through the mouths of storytellers and traveling sages of distant lands, there had been whispers of godlike beings, those that had challenged the ancient Sage of Six Paths. Beings of extraordinary power that sought to rule the rising shinobi world, and it was one of the reasons he had taught ninjutsu in the first place, so that when he was gone humans might defend themselves-

Of course, just myths. Humanity had obviously failed to protect themselves; in fact, had started to use it against each other. They _needed_ a being like himself to nudge them towards the path the Sage had initially wanted of them.

The rolling of his mobile prison brought a lifeless smile to him. _A disabled God. Imagine that._

The main sanctum contained Madara already; his instantaneous teleportation jutsu made this no surprise. Nagato looked through the eyes of the Asura Path and saw she was still a kilometer or so out.

"Well?" Madara demanded.

Nagato kept the humorless smile. "Well, what? Something on your mind?"

"This isn't a time to be playing games!"

"For the great Madara Uchiha to be so worried," Nagato said condescendingly. "Suggests that these are grave stakes indeed."

The other raised a gloved hand and pointed at Nagato, the constant rain and lightning illuminating Madara strangely. "You aren't taking this seriously. You yourself said they now possess some of the Tailed Beast's Chakra. The Eye of the Moon cannot proceed until it is recovered. We are at a standstill."

Nagato nodded, enjoying seeing the other so agitated, something he had never seen. "So we will recover it in time-"

"There _is_ no more time. For a few seconds we had it in our grasp, and you allowed it to slide. It isn't happening again, certainly not on borrowed time." Madara lowered the hand, and Nagato finally let his smile fall.

"What do you mean?"

"Let me show you. **KAMUI!"**

In any other position, at any other time in his past, he would've dodged, been able to counter and possibly strike Madara dead with one well aimed blow.

But this was him now. Immobile, broken, and physically weakened. He could only widen the Rinnegan in defiant, cold fury as thick metal chains emerged from the time-rip, shredding his mobile prison and wrapping around every limp it could. He cried out as his legs were bound together, the nerves raging in protest and filling with a pain he had not felt for so long-

The chains embedded themselves in the wall, pinning him suspended next to the doorway that fed into the laboratory where he had made the Pains as the justu ended and Madara gave a sigh of satisfaction.

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

"Konan."

The Asura Path spoke for the first time since they had started their return to Amegakure. She looked down at the embodiment of Pain she carried feeling it tense in her grip. "Yes?"

"Hurry-"

It went entirely limp.

"Pain?"

No response. She jiggled the body; the head lolled.

" _Nagato?"_

No response. She held herself perfectly horizontal and narrowed her wings, turning into an arrowhead being shot across the world. The first spits of rain pelted her face-

"Sorry, Konan." The raspy voice was all she heard before her arm seemingly exploded painfully, spraying snowy-white particles everywhere. But the goblets of Zetsu flesh were not the color of the voice that had spoken.

"Well, not really."

Black Zetsu gave the artificial, throaty laugh she had often heard him give before he ate his dead opponenets as she tumbled out of the sky, like an angel with its wings clipped by the heavens.


	11. Chapter 11 - Truth is Pain

**Review Response:**

 **BlackDisciple:** Hey it's a tough job trying to save the world in your own weird... twisted, backwards way... yeah fuck Obito.

 **Lunasalsal:** Then you're going to like this chapter!

 **Guest: **We'll have to see who succeeds and fails in the end buddy.

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

Nagato strained, but it was useless. The Rinnegan glowed in his head, the killing intent in him so powerful that Madara actually paused in his approach, the lone Sharingan matching against the hatred expressed through his eyes.

"You must've seen this coming."

"Your betrayal? This is a new low-"

"There you go, sounding like a child again," Madara scoffed. His hands hung loosely at his sides as he stopped right in front of Nagato. The two eyes looked into the one, and Nagato held his head up proudly, lanky red hair falling down to his bony shoulders. _I won't let him get away with this._ "You _swore_ to me that in the end, your life would be given in servtitude to the Eye of the Moon- to _peace_." Madara said the last word like an attack, designed to pierce his resolve.

But the Akatsuki Leader only stared at him, boring into the red eye.

Madara sighed. "But I suppose I'm a victim of the same scenario. A sapling planted in the ground designed to be fed upon by the greater animal. But what happens when that saplings grows too big for the animal to use it anymore?"

"What are you talking about."

Madara held up a hand to his mask, and Nagato's eyes widened as with a few _clicks_ , it came free.

Behind it was a man aged not by the progression of time, but by the misery of combat, pain, and hatred. The left side of his face was a scarred wreck, where one Sharingan was easily seen. The other remained smooth, a second Sharingan also imbedded into it. The short hair, without the forehead barrier of the swirled orange mask, fell just short of covering both beads of red.

But it was not seeing what was finally behind the mask that made Nagato's chest burn cold in shock. Rather it was _not_ what was behind it.

This was not Madara Uchiha. Nagato had seen the great statues of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha for himself. And while stonework could only convey so much, there was zero resemblance between the two. And that meant...

"You have used me."

"Self-centered. I used _all_ of you." The fake Madara- _Tobi_ , Nagato thought wildly - smirked. "Don't feel too surprised yet. You have not been _entirely_ misguided; my orders _did_ come from the real Madara Uchiha, I assure you. But being as old as he was, he could never have completed the Eye of the Moon by himself. So, he entrusted me to continue his work."

"But just as he could not complete it alone, neither could I do it by myself."

"You used me," Nagato said again, the words sounding strange in his ears. Never, _never!_ had he imagined the deceit Tobi had laid out went this deep. Nagato had allowed himself and Konan to put themselves at Tobi's command, banding together international criminals under a banner they did not understand but Nagato and Konan had-

 _Or so we thought. In the end, we have been just as clueless as them_.

Tobi smiled weakly. "I didn't intend for this to happen so soon, either. But the appearance of those two beings at Kumogakure means the plan is deeply at risk. I simply don't think you have it in you to defeat them, and thus Akatsuki had served it's purpose; their phase is over. Konan and Kisame are being dealt with as we speak." He paused from his matter-of-fact tone, drawing his hands together into a hand sign. "Just as you are right now."

Nagato couldn't find a response. _I was used, I_ allowed _myself to be. How could this have happened..._

Tobi's hand glowed blue with chakra, and he reached his hand to Nagato's face. Instinctively he recoiled, but the chains tightened and he groaned in protest. The gloved hands found his right socket, and with a delicate _pop!_ , he was half blind.

"Sh... sh..."

"Don't try to resist it," Tobi said, his other hand having already taken out his own right eye. A sickening squelching sound, and then Tobi fell to his knees, groaning. He gasped while Nagato stared, unable to understand his own downfall. "Such power... and this is just one eye." Tobi looked over at him, a curious smile on his lips. "Now I know how you were able to contain them both. That colored hair... yes, it all makes sense in the end, doesn't it?"

Tobi staggered to his feet. Nagato tried again to speak, but his lips felt awkward, numb. The cold feeling of blood from his emptied socket leaked down his face like tears, dripping off his chin.

"You were a good subordinate, Nagato." From Tobi's palm, a chakra receiver emerged, and he embedded it in Nagato's chest. He gasped, the pain searing through him like an icy river. He felt Tobi's intent, raw and decisive, flow through him, and he knew what he wanted.

"Sh... shi..."

The other was misreading him. "Yes, the Samsara of Life. You've studied it from the ancient texts, good. That makes this all much easier." Tobi licked his lips, looking very pale, whether from the new strain of the Rinnegan in his eye, or some emotional qualm. Maybe both. "You see, even thought your and Akatsuki's time is done, I still cannot act alone. I'll require... old help."

"Help that you'll give yourself up to give me."

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

The ground below had never been such a premonition of danger. Her wings were shot, and her chakra was scrambled horrifically. Black Zetsu's raspy laugh followed her and her vision blurred at the speed of which she fell, the unceasing rain creating a vortex as she dropped.

 _Wings are shot, and can't form new ones._ After a small pang of regret, she released the Asura Path from her grip, allowed it to fall away from her as she raised the arm not being held by Black Zetsu. It began to fragment into sheets of paper, like she had done many times before. But pain shot through her as she did so; the paper was loosening, but it was rapidly being left behind, separating from her body and getting outside of her chakra control. It was as if actual pieces of skin were being removed from her body, and she gasped. Her blue hair billowed all around her, everything was chaos-

"Let it happen, Konan," Black Zetsu wheezed, the yellow eyes looking hauntingly like lamp lights in the chaotic haze of rain. "There is no stopping it!"

She didn't reply, tried to find a new solution. She couldn't separate herself, and she couldn't heal her wings- she figured Zetsu was agitating her chakra-

Her free hand grabbed the small black creature by it's head, and it cried out in protest. Needle teeth dug itself into her hand, but her determination weighed out the pain. She pulled and pulled, all aware of the distance to the ground growing rapidly.

Instead of loosening, he seemed to become her arm, the pure blackness darkening out the cloak, skin, and hand. "You aren't getting rid of me so easily!" he hissed. "There's no point in stopping this. Nagato is being eliminated by Madara, and White Zetsu will have already killed Kisame. Akatsuki's purpose short-lived purpose is done- if it dies, you no longer of reason to live either!"

Warped, suggestive thoughts infiltrated her brain, slow and smooth like honey dripping.

She already lived in a world without Yahiko, her closest friend, her lover even. A brave, young man who had had the interests of Amegakrue at heart, with a talent for uniting disillusioned people under his wing and pitting them against the evils that plagued their land. When he had died on that Day, she had been certain it was Her Last Day. A world without the enigmatic young man was a world she did not belong in.

She already lived in a world without Nagato, the third person of their childhood triad. The young man had died on that Day, too, his sanity ripped to shreds by Danzo and Hanzo and leaving Pain in it's place. Sometimes, glimpses of his former self would shine through the persona of Pain, but they were often too short, too weak.

So what, indeed, was the point of living in a world alone? Wasn't it Madara controlling them anyways?

 _It wasn't Madara or Pain I saved when the Nine Tails attacked in the paper tree._ She looked at her blackened arm, eyes narrowed. _It wasn't Pain who I helped recover at the top of the Tower. Pain isn't Nagato!_

Her free arm grabbed the Black Zetsu infested one at the shoulder joint, and she bit her lips as she allowed the sockets to turn to paper. Black Zetsu screamed as he, still attached to the now loosened paper arm, flew away to land somewhere else in the ground.

Her mind calmed, as did her chakra. The pain in her armless shoulder socket screamed for attention, and again she felt a blurriness, a desire to sleep, to let go and just-

 _Nagato's still alive! I can reach him!_

The wings fanned out twenty meters from the ground, and like a parachute pulled too late they greatly slowed her momentum, but not enough to come crashing to the ground with enough force to cause the soggy ground to splinter and indent beneath her.

Her breaths came in short gasps, and she resisted to look over at her forsaken arm. She could make a new one overtime just from paper origami ninjutsu, but right now, with the time at hand-

She forced herself to get up, ignoring the pain all over her body. The rain came nonstop, mixing in with the blood dripping from her stump. She took a step forward, and another. Her papery wings shed off the water, but she could not bring herself to raise them. Amegakure was only a kilometer away, she _had_ to make it. This was too much like that Day, when Hanzo had captured her, and Nagato and Yahiko knowing she was in pain and desperately trying to reach her, only for the events to turn against them anyway-

Only this time, the roles were reversed. And she had swore to herself that that Day would never repeat.

A figure barred her path, shrouded in the rain. She foolishly raised her fists, a rebellious smirk on her face. "Sorry, Zetsu, but whatever you and Tobi have in mind isn't going to work. Just stay out of the way."

The silhouette laughed. "Then it's a good thing neither of them are my friend right now."

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

"Together, Nagato. Just like it's always been."

 _We were never together._ Tobi's mocking tone didn't make him feel any more sympathetic to the clear distress the other had on his face. He was obviously still getting used to the Rinnegan- _stolen,_ at that- and the matter at hand.

The shock had passed, and the defiance had returned. He would now bow to this fake Madara, and he hoped with all his heart that if Konan was somehow still alive, she would never do the same. Her loyalty to Pain was too high-

His chakra was potent and powerful, but even without this actually being Madara Uchiha, their chakra was still powerful. More than that, almost cleanly rested, due to him having left the fight much earlier. Using all the Pains at once was a draining effort-

Not that it would make any difference with this final jutsu. The Samasara of the Outer Path caused the user to give up their own life in exchange for reviving one other.

And Nagato knew, with the recent revelation, whom it was for. He tried to speak, but like what he had tried to say before, his lips were numb and non responsive. _You'll never control him,_ he thought. _You could control me..._ The thought was sickening to himself, and it must've appeared on his face as well for Madara chuckled.

"You look so unhappy? Why? The plan will proceed, just without you."

Anger welled up in him again. "Sh..."

"If you would stop resisting, you would be able to say those words so much faster." Madara's face turned into a curt smile. "Who's betraying their promise now? Konan and Kisame have followed through fully-"

A long time ago, Jiraiya would have told him that instead of utilizing his anger for violence, he should convert it into a passion for peaceful change. When his former sensei had come to Amegakure to find the Leader of Akatsuki, he had put those words to use, confronting Pain in all its glory and trying to talk him back to those teachings.

And he had not waited for words. He had attacked Jiraiya, and struck him down with the full power of Pain.

Nagato then thought back to when the Nine-Tails jiinchuriki- the former student of his sensei Naruto Uzumaki- had come to _him_ in the paper tree. Not to attack, he had certainly had the opportunity, but seemingly to _talk_.

And he had not given him the chance to do so. He had attempted to quickly subvert the jiinchurki through his chakra, and when he had been unable to do so, his disciple Konan had done the job instead.

His hands formed the hand sign necessary for the Samsara technique, and as he did so it occurred to them he had failed as a student to Jiraiya, who had shown him what it was to be a shinobi. He had ignored his most passionate teachings, mastering those of jutsu, of _attack_ , but not of peace. Yahiko had blossomed in that, but what had he done to Yahiko? Turned him into a weapon of war.

Anger turned to self-loathing, and self-loathing into an infinite fury. His Rinnegan _burned_ in his head, and Tobi's eyes widened. "No-"

 _I am not a shinobi, never have I been. I am_ God, _and I am not about to let myself be brought down like a ninja!_

 ** _"SH- SHINRA TENSEI!"_**

The entire room exploded in blinding chakra. Tobi shouted, unable to use his space-time jutsu due to trying to keep Nagato under control. He slammed into the roof of the mouth with a groan while the entire tower trembled with the power of the detonation.

He was on the floor, the chains shredded and blown all about the rooms. There was no support for him, so he simply pulled himself with his bony arms to the nearest couch, pulled himself up.

Tobi lied motionless on the floor. His Akatsuki cloak had been completely away, leaving him in a wrecked skin tight shirt and pants. Nagato breathed deeply, one hand on the chakra receiver still embedded in his stomach. He yanked it out and he immediately felt his chakra return to calm, natural levels. His breathing steadied, and still balanced on the couch he did the hand signs for the summoning jutsu. He slammed his palm on the ground and the four Pains appeared, their chakra signals back without Tobi's interference. The Asura Path looked as if it had had a nasty fall, its mechanical limbs fractured but core intact. He wondered why until the crashing realization that Tobi's taunts were probably, in fact, true.

The Four Pains walked to him and picked him up, the Preta Path grabbing him by the folds on his cloak and quickly draining the chakra out of him. Tobi's head lulled, but a grin formed on his scarred face as the eyes narrowed. "As... resourceful as ever."

"Where is she?" the Preta Path asked calmly, though Nagato stood only a few meters away.

"Dead."

The Asura Path's good arm formed into a thin but short knife, and it rammed into Tobi's side. He did not cry out but continued to smile mirthlessly.

" _Where is she?"_

"If you kill me," Tobi murmured. "The Eye of the Moon Plan fails. _Everything_ will have been for nothing- are you willing to give it all up just to know if she's even alive?"

Was he? _Am I?_

The Preta Path grabbed Tobi by the face and pulled him in. They stared at each other, and Tobi's crooked grin grew. "What I thought. You know you need me, Pain-"

"Pain needed you." The Preta turned his face towards Nagato.

Nagato, who's face was deathly pale and entire body shaking, but was standing upon his two feet, one hand of course using the couch for support. Tobi stared, apparently speechless for once.

"You used Pain. But you will not use _me_."

Tobi closed his eyes-

"Nagato!"

He stopped as, inexplicably, Konan flew through the window, looking ragged, worn, but _alive_. His cold anger melted away with warm relief. Held under her arms was an equally battered Kisame, the left side of his blue face coated in red with blood. His headband was held in his pocket, clearly cut off from his forehead. He paused to take in the Pain's and the captured Tobi, but Konan brushed past them all as if they weren't there. Not coming to hug him as normal beings might have done, but instead coming to his side and grabbing his other arm, keeping him standing. He appreciated the support sincerely.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Black Zetsu turned on me; and White Zetsu on Kisame. We both managed to overcome them; surprise was their only advantage."

"I'm glad you're safe." The words sounded very alien to him; he could not recall having expressed concern for someone since that Day. His kindness had died along with Yahiko.

She looked startled by the statement, but she chose not to reply to it. "You have Madara, then?"

"He's not Madara. I'm not entirely sure who he is."

Tobi laughed bitterly but gave no suggestion. Kisame approached him silently. "But I know who he is."

"Really?" Nagato said.

"Yes; but the question that more on my mind is who the hell are _you_?"

It was one surprise after another. Nagato stared across the room at Kisame, in his private quarters where no one had ever been besides those already in the room, at an ally who had betrayed his village on the impulse of distrust and who now might just as easily come for him.

He laughed. And what a wonderful feeling it was.

In the arms of the Preta Path, Tobi shook his head in bewilderment. "Never before did I think I would meet God; but after actually meeting the ones at Kumogakure, I can safely say you are nothing like one."

 _And maybe_ , Nagato thought as he beckoned Kisame to sit on one of the couches. _That isn't such a bad thing after all_.


	12. Chapter 12 - To Business

**XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

Kisame Hoshigake bowed his head in silence as Nagato finished speaking, one blue hand resting on the back of his neck and the other holding his mighty blade upright. Konan thought back to their conversation when infiltrating Kumogakure, of comradery, and wondered what his response might be.

Though she had a guess.

"I suppose there's no helping it, then." He looked up at them, the small irises of his eyes looking back into Nagato's purple rimmed ones, which stared back with a sort of a calm resignation. He had seemed much more subdued with Tobi's revelation now made known to everyone. "I can't say I support it. The whole reason I left Kirigakure and the Mizukage was to get away from the deception and to find my own self, to find _some_ truth. Instead I've found a, what, double puppetmaster?"

Konan glanced at Tobi, the Pain's standing guard while a seal kept the powers of his eyes contained. Gagged, he could only give a muffled laugh; Nagato, for all his fury for the other, had not decided to kill him.

Yet, at least.

Nagato nodded in assent to Kisame before saying, "You're not far off. We've all been manipulated."

"And the purpose for Akatsuki?" Kisame's temper seemed to be rising. "Have we been nothin but pawns for you all? Did Itachi die for a useless cause?"

 _Comradery._ She couldn't help but think of Yahiko, the dead leader of an organization who's original principles and morals were as lifeless as he. She spoke up, looking at Kisame's anguished face. "Our purpose remains. What changes is that now _we're_ in control. We call the shots now."

Both Tobi and Kisame snorted. "You say that. But what about those two we fought in Kumogakure? As you said, they sucked enough chakra out of the Gedo Statue to stop the process. Our purpose is intact, but it's at a standstill."

Konan gave a quiet sigh of relief as Nagato leaned back. Kisame would remain loyal, but he raised a good point. She glanced sidelong at Nagato, whom she had helped seat into the now bloodied couch. The beings had countered every attack thrown by the five Pains, outperforming at every angle. Their abilities were fierce; beyond anything any individual Akatsuki member had ever been capable.

"They will be attracted to the Gedo Statue," Nagato said firmly. "When they emerged from their dimension, it was what they first turned their attention to. We won't have to search them out; they'll come to us."

"And we what, fight them again?" Kisame asked with thinly veiled sarcasm.

"We have no other choice." He made to rise, and Konan was surprised that he was able to actually stand upon his feet for a moment before she came up to catch his arm, and to his credit he did not rebuke her.

Instead, he looked to her. "We will need Sasuke and his teammates back. Send a paper clone." He turned to Kisame. "Can I trust you, Kisame? Truly, can I?"

The other seemed taken aback. "You deceive all of us by lying about who you were behind those eerie puppets, and you ask _me_ if I can trust _you_?"

"Trust goes both ways." Nagato straightened in Konan's grasp. "We may be an organization of criminals and liars, but we depend on each other one and other. So I need your answer."

Kisame's needle teeth bared a moment, and his eyes glanced between Nagato and Tobi, who was facing them blindfolded, as if he could still see the confrontation.

The former Kiri-nin turned back to Nagato, confident. "What do you want me to do?"

"I need you to perform faked assassination attempts on every remaining Kage, and to leave a cookie crumb trail that leads back to Amegakure."

The other's face contorted in confusion. "You're kidding me. After all this time of maintaining secrecy, you want to expose yourself _now_?"

"I have my reasons," Nagato said firmly. "Can you do this?"

Sharksin swung around to heft on Kisame's shoulders. "Probably easier than tackling those two beings," he mused with a glimmer of his former normal sarcasm. "I'll do my best... Leader."

"Nagato," the Rinnegan bearer said, and he actually held a hand out for Kisame to shake, taking both him and Konan aback. She looked down at the red-haired man. _Did Tobi do this to you?_ "My name... is Nagato."

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

Konan stopped before departing to get Sasuke, facing him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he said easily, betraying nothing. "But we need Sasuke and his team. As many of us as possible to fight them."

She gave a hesitant blue-lipped smile. "I'm glad to see you're thinking this through and not charging recklessly ahead. You've had a bad tendency to do that in the past."

He smiled back with forced humor. He was in his much larger prison now, the same one he had confronted Naruto Uzumaki in. He looked down at her carefully hidden face- or rather, the mask that hid what she was really thinking. "Not this time. I won't risk what we've worked for."

For the moment it seemed to pacify her. She held her smile a moment longer before she jumped out the mouth and took flight.

He sighed, closed his eyes. Quickly, the four other visions of sight aligned themselves to him, looking down at the unmasked and gagged Tobi between them.

"You have much to answer for," he said through the mouth of the Preta Path, pulling Tobi up by the shoulders and holding him suspended in air. The other, still blinded by the blindfold seal, simply turned his face to the sound of his voice but gave no sound behind the cloth. "And perhaps I do, too. But there is a way we can be redeemed."

A snort. He continued anyways. "You are deeply concerned by the beings that came out of that space-time. So am I. Their intentions seem nothing if hostile to not only us, but our goal."

"The goal of peace."

He allowed the words to hang a moment before he had the Asura Path remove the gag. Still, even with his mouth freed, Tobi offered no response, though his mouth was framed in a morbid smile. Nagato wondered if his words were surprising him, and he was only holding a mask of emotion like Konan, or whether he truly no longer cared and only sought to spite him.

"I told the others we needed all the help we can. And so we do. I want you to train and enhance Sasuke's use of the Sharingan for when the two beings come here."

The smile fell away instantly, but was quickly turned into another mocking grin. "You must be joking, Nagato."

The Preta Path casually moved one hand from the shoulder to his throat, and Nagato allowed his impatience and long-bottled fury to come through. The Preta flung Tobi against the wall, then pressed the chokehold on the other. To Tobi's credit, his expression did not change much. "Listen to me," Nagato himself said, speaking aloud from across the room. "You may lave lied about who you were, but I can tell your intent has been genuine. You want to end this miserable world as much as I do, and create a perfect one, a peaceful one. That has not changed. Akatsuki still lives to serve that goal. But if we allow those two beings to capture the Gedo Statue, or absorb it's chakra, that belief is _dead_. Do you understand me?" Nagato licked his lips, his throat hoarse. "I want you to understand we have no other choice. As much as I hate you for what you've done, what you've been responsible for- I need your help. And you need mine."

He loosened the grip on Tobi's throat, then released him entirely. The other staggered but then stood tall. He seemed to be deep in thought, though Nagato could not read much with the blindfold.

"Spoken so sagely," Tobi commented. "So wisely. You have the mind of a God, at the very least."

"Will you help?" Nagato demanded.

"Yes." Tobi moved a hand to his blindfold, then paused. "And after? If we defeat them? What will become of our partnership?"

Nagato already knew the outcome, so he lied through the truth. "Konan will act as my liaison. If all goes well, I will allow you to decide what happens with the Rinnegan." He narrowed the said eyes, though Tobi could not yet see. "This is a new deal between us. One of which we will _both_ keep, Tobi."

"Never have I doubted your honesty. Only your usefulness." The bluntness of the words didn't faze Nagato, and he did the hand sign. The seal of Tobi's blindfold faded, and the other removed it. The other blinked, getting used to sight again, before he turned to face to Nagato.

"My name is not Tobi," he said hazardously, seemingly in inner conflict. "It's... Obito. Obito Uchiha."

Nagato raised an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this?"

The other adopted a serious look as the Mangekyo phased in. "It means nothing to me any longer, but if we are to be equal partners in this conflict... perhaps it is time I treat you as one."

His space-time activated, and he was gone. Messengers and allies, doing his bidding. His stomach knotted uncomfortably. _Now... I must do my part. No-_ our.

 **XXX**

 **Momoshiko Otsutsuki**

The man these people called Raikage disappeared into his palm, and the delicate ret fruit formed before him. He bit into it, savoring every bite, feeling the _power_ of the man filling him. New forms to turn his lightning chakra into deadly weapons, new methods for hand-to-hand combat. The red juices ran from the corners of his mouth, filling him with glee. He could finally feel his severed arm reuniting with his regular chakra network properly.

Kinshiki also fed, though of course on lesser beings. His large mouth ate fruits in much fewer bites, his brutish face looking out over the landscape. Sensing for the Gedo Statue, perhaps.

He finished his own fruit, stretched with his own sensory skill. The village was utterly empty besides those so wounded and close to death there was no point in feeding upon them. This civilization, like many others, was over. It was time to move onto the next.

"Are we moving, my lord?" Kinshiki asked of him, quickly getting to his feet.

"Yes... where to?"

Kinshiki shrugged. "These lands are foreign. But I meant... to pursue the statue, or another village?"

Momoshiki laughed. "What can they do? They are _men,_ Kinshiki. What could they do to get in the way?"

His subordinate hesitated, arms held at his sides. "Lord... they may be men, but they still wield powerful chakra. We should be wary of them, especially the one bearing the Rinnegan-"

"He does not _bear_ it." he spat on the ground, his saliva red with the juices of the chakra fruit. He stood up, holding a loose rock in his left hand. "It is impossible for a _man_ to have them. He stole them from one of our kind." His hand closed around the rock, cracking it as if it was a chunk of gravel. "Not that it matters. Lesser beings will always be put in it's place, no matter how they may dare to challenge their betters."

"These beings have come a long way, despite their inferiority," Kinshiki still pressed. "We should-"

"Don't tell me they've given you a scare?" The rock turned into dust in his hand, and he let it trickle out upon the ground, and he turned his pale face upward. One white hand came to pull the veil off his face, letting the planet's air brush over him. Not as good as others, but still fresh, sweet, and promising.

Kinshiki was speaking, but he did not care and interrupted him mid-flow. "Another civilization, Kinshiki. We will make ourselves known to these people, just like every other time. And just like every other time, we will take what is rightfully ours."

His partner gave the familiar rough laugh. "Chakra."

He released the veil and smiled in the direction of the next greatest source of chakra. _"Power."_


	13. Chapter 13 - Search for Answers

**Konan**

 **XXX**

 _Nagato was different_. Had his confrontation with Madara really upset him that much? She could easily sense it in everything about him. The way he spoke to Kisame and Madara, and even her. Almost... resigned, like he'd made some sort of pact with a real God to seal his fate.

As she flew towards Konohagakure, where rumors of the rogue-nin Sasuke Uchiha were fluctuating, she contemplated Nagato's choice to not kill Tobi. If there was one thing she knew about him, it was his hatred for being used or misguided. When they were alone, sometimes his anger for being subordinates for Tobi would show, and they would discuss plans to snatch the Eye of the Moon Plan away from the Uchiha. Anger came very regularly to him when it was brought up... so what had stopped him?

 _He's different, of that there is no doubt. The question, then, is it for better or worse?_

Time would reveal that, she was certain.

Pain riveted in her empty arm socket; neither she nor Nagato had much knowledge of medical ninjutsu, but for now it was bandaged up and secure. Before Momoshiki and Kinshiki arrived to Amegakure, she would make certain to perform the paper kinjutsu to remake that arm. For now, she hoped it wouldn't be necessary. Nagato had sounded urgent in getting Sasuke back, and so there was no for her personal needs.

The wind blew about her, and her vision turned tunnel-like. The endless rain of Amegakure was far behind, leaving her damp but drying in the sunlight of the neighboring nation. The green fields of the Land of Fire below seemed much more lively and friendly to her, compared to the almost graying sensation that hounded Amegakure. It seemed strange to her that such a bright land had been responsible for so much devastation.

A small town of tan and brown buildings appeared behind one of the green hills, and she went down for it. What Sasuke and his comrades had been looking for was beyond her, but they would have to be staying in one of the outlying towns.

The more she thought about it, the more it seemed nonsensical to her. What _were_ they after? Pain had destroyed the Village Hidden in the Leaves; a vast majority of the shinobi from this land were dead. Certainly it did not mean the end of ninja life for the Land of Fire, but in the immediate future, what was there? What could Sasuke want?

She landed neatly on the outskirts, where no one could see her arrival. The paper folded back into her cloak, hands, and face. Pain throbbed again in her vanished arm, but she ignored it. Her amber eyes remained alert as she entered the streets. The bustling life of the town seemed vanquished; many seemed nervous and subdued. No doubt the realization that their shinobi village was gone, their very means for security and stability, was beginning to weigh in on them.

Konan pulled over to a small, isolated fruit stand. An elderly women looked up at her, eyes squinting behind the glasses. "You're not from around here."

"No. I'm looking for Sasuke Uchiha."

The woman nodded, resigned, as if she'd somehow guessed. "You're Akatsuki."

The identification threw her off, but she didn't allow it to show. "Yes."

"With our shinobi gone, I suppose the Hokage was forced to hire you to get rid of him. How ironic."

"Who is the current Hokage?"

Her eyes narrowed behind the glasses. "If he hired you-?"

Konan raised her lone hand, and a paper knife formed in it. "Who is the current Hokage? The Fifth?"

"N-no. Danzo Shimurra."

"Impossible." The thought left as an actual phrase before she could catch herself. The knife fell away in her hand. _Impossible._

"I assure you, he is. The Fifth was incapacitated by... the attack."

The woman knew who had destroyed Konoha. They all did. The fear was palpable on her face after the threat of the knife. Konan, however, barely registered it. _Danzo. Danzo... of all people? He would be an elder by now, but DANZO-?_

"Where did you say Sasuke Uchiha was?" she said between gritted teeth.

The woman trembled behind the stand. "He and his followers are at the sauna... don't hurt me..."

Konan swept away, the Akatsuki cloak whipping about her. The hotel was just down the street on the corner, a three story building that stood one of the tallest in the town. She walked down the street, her fist clenched inside the sleeve of the cloak. She had the strangest urge to cry, but this was hardly the place. When had been the last time she'd cried, even?

 _Danzo._ He, who they were certain had been behind that Day. In league with Hanzo, whispering in his ear like a snake. Who had kidnapped her and held her hostage, as bait for Yahiko and Nagato to come.

 _Danzo_. Who mercilessly led an underground movement in the Leaf Village, his little Root operation. She remembered they had never once appeared during Pain's assault; they had probably burrowed down, like worms from the birds of prey.

 _DANZO._

The doors to the hotel swung off its hinges. The clerk behind the counter stared, agape, as she approached, aware that many people both inside and out the building were staring at her.

She no longer cared. She stopped before the counter and grabbed the shirt of the clerk, pulled him over the counter so that he was eye to eye with her amber orbs.

"Show me where Sasuke Uchiha is."

"He-he-he left! He left just a few minutes ago-"

 _"WHERE?"_

The man's eyes teared. "Left for the... for the..."

 _"What?"_ she hissed.

"Sasuke... he left... for the Kages. For the Kage Summit."

 **XXX**

 **Pain**

 **XXX**

Atop the hill, the four Pain's stood like statues, gazing down upon the crater that had once been a bustling place called the Village Hidden in the Leaves. They looked down for a few moments, then skittered down the hillside and entered the crater, searching for where the final confrontation with the Nine Tails had occurred.

 _Somewhere... here._

 _But is he still here?_

They stopped at the edge of the jagged stone and cracked earth, torn apart by the final battle, permanently burned into his memory. When he had come so close to failing. _Had_ failed, in fact.

Pain approached the corpse, mostly untouched. The wound of the Rasengan, born into the stomach like a vicious tattoo, was an ugly stain on Yahiko's physique. Still, the Naraka Path would be able to heal it- and the body itself- fairly easily.

The question was, however, was whether he should.

He had failed, of that there was no doubt. First Yahiko's body, and now his spirit's desire for peace. What right did he have to continue using his image for a goal that was now jeapordized?

The fists of Pain collectively curled in self-loathing. _How have we come to this point? Was it Obito who brought us to this point, or was it... me?_ He thought of Konan and Kisame, acting on his orders with little explanation of what he was doing. He was hoping to spare them that knowledge until it actually came; he was absolutely certain Konan at least would never allow it. But the thought they blindly followed his will bothered him more than ever now, as he stood above the physical manifestation of his failure.

"What should I do, Yahiko?" the Asura Path asked, stooping down to kneel beside the fallen former Pain.

Immediately he became aware he was speaking to a body long-gone, long dead, looking foolish to any onlookers.

 _Unbecoming of a God._ But then again, it didn't really look like he was one right now anyway.

Or would be much longer.

In the mind of the man called Nagato, a memory formed, crusted over from age and desire to forget. Yahiko, alive and well, standing before him outside their little home where they had lived with Jiraiya, Konan was inside, packing.

 _"Nagato."_

 _"Yes."_

 _He gestured with a hand over the mountainous landscape, to where Amegakure itself lied. "There'll come a day when we'll have it ll, Nagato, can you believe that?"_

 _And he could, very easily at that. Yahiko had led them to do no wrong, and they ha dtruly come a long way already. He nodded his head in assent._

 _Yahiko sighed. "But could I lead all of them, Nagato? Could I really?"_

 _"You lead us so well already-"_

 _"But a_ nation _? No, I don't think I could." Yahiko faced him, smiling. "But I know someone who could. And I'm looking right at him."_

 _"Yahiko-"_

 _"Don't play humble now. Nagato, just look at yourself! Those eyes of yours are a sure sign of your importance, your significance!" Yahiko looked away, agitated, before turning back to face his friend. "You're destined to be more than just my subordinate in the future, Nagato. Anyone can see that. I just want you to know... whatever happens, you will always have my trust. And when that day comes when Amegakure is ours and we can restore peace to our crippled country, I will always be at your disposal."_

 _Nagato hesitated. "And... what if I fail?"_

 _The other clapped a hand on his shoulder, smiling once more. "We all fail from time to time. But because we do, does that mean we should give up entirely?"_

The memory melted away, leaving Yahiko's pierced, close-eyed face before him in the place of the untouched one.

Wind whispered around Pain, as if Yahiko's spirit was itself watching them, reinforcing the vision he had seen. The Rinnegan closed on all the bearers as back in the darkness of the Tower, Nagato hesitated.

 _He would want to be the one to make the final stand. To fight with us again._

All at once, the Pain's each summoned a chakra receiver rod and plunged them into the stomach of Yahiko. Blood spurted but quickly slowed as the wound healed. Nagato allowed his chakra to infiltrate the body, like he had done many times to other people to stun them. But he poured _more_ of himself, so much that his real body strained and blood leaked from his nose. Putting a piece of himself, over such a distance, into another-

Yahiko's eyes opened, the irises pulsating into the purple rings of the Rinnegan. He stood up, the jaw opening and closing. The other Pains took steps back, as if they somehow felt the power thundering in the now lively veins of the other.

 _We'll do it right this time, Yahiko. I promise you._


	14. Chapter 14 - Kage Summit

**Haven't had time to do review responses lately, they'll come back next upload!**

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 _The Kages. The Summit. This isn't good._

The Land of Iron was a bitterly cold place, and was definitely an unusual place a meeting of shinobi. For the remaining Kage to have willingly walked into the home of the Samurai told her many things, among them that their trust was so mangled with each other that a formerly neutral party now had to intervene.

 _But why, Sasuke? What do you hope to gain?_

His motives were unclear. Pain had allowed him and his team to perform how they desired. Obviously he had wanted to go to Konohagakure for revenge- had that somehow branched out into a desire for a global hatred for shinobi?

That was a sure danger sign he was growing unstable. She wondered if Nagato would eliminate the boy just as easily as he had Naruto Uzumaki if it came to it.

Like in Amegakure, water fell from the sky, but in icy flakes that chilled and wet her skin. Her paper ninjutsu would definitely be weaker out in the open snow.

She landed in the snow, and with her remaining arm extended her hand. Several paper birds extended, shivering in artificial chill. She smiled at the small, beautiful creations she had made, then sent them searching. They would recognize the chakra of anyone familiar-

 _Danzo._

Could Sasuke be after him? The new Kage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves? He was definitely responsible for many dark events in Konoha; could he have done something to offend the young Uchiha?

 _Danzo._

Yes, he had done many dark events, hadn't he?

She forced herself to calm down, focused her chakra through the birds she had sent out. Like many eyes and ears they went through the snow, towards the building the Summit was occurring in, a large dome shaped structure. The birds flew about, sensing-

 _There_. Four bodies were over on the right side of the building, at a side entrance. Two unidentified chakra signatures were fading out, probably the guards standing watch. They were about to enter the Summit, and that was something they did _not_ have time for.

 _No-_

Something else was on the exact opposite side of the building. An equally familiar signature, but alone and with a chakra as large as all four of Taka put together.

 _No, Kisame!_ She silently cursed herself and Nagato; Kisame had been sent to make fake assassination attempts on the Kages by him, and here they were all grouped together! And poor Kisame, knowing how dangerous it was, was still following through with his Leader's orders.

There was little choice that could be made now. One or the other, who was more valuable here?

 _Stupid, stupid question. They both have incredible value to us right now._

She felt very uncomfortable with herself. What was life supposed to be to her and Nagato? There was a time when she, Yahiko, and Nagato had saved lives to truly save them, when Akatsuki had been about helping others and helping them live.

Wasn't she only saving them so that they would die later on, under the fire of an all-powered Tailed?

She bit her blue lips, then held up her hand into a hand sign. Her left side began to slough off, flitting off into many pieces of paper. She multiplied the amount, more and more, thousands if not millions of slips of paper piling into another body in mere seconds-

A second Konan, and paper clone stood next to her.

"I'll recover Kisame," it said.

"And I will get Sasuke," the original said. "We will meet back at this spot after."

They jumped away to recover their comrades.

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

Pain stood before him, six strong. A replacement for the Human Path, taken by another Amegakure chunin who had eagerly complied to serve, had joined. Once more, the Six Paths of Pain were here.

His brow furrowed. He remained motionless in his walker prison, he looking at himself through six pairs of Rinnegan. Looking upon himself as if through a mirror, taking in the fragileness of his own red-headed body. The irony of God being locked in a cage...

 _They'll be coming soon. Those two..._

Certainly he had his plan for taking care of them. He had to, if there was any hope of allowing Konan to carry on his will; _Yahiko_ 's dream.

The Pains turned away on his command and jumped from the great painted mouth, down, down, skimming along the structure of the tower into the area where the Gedo Statue lied dormant, kept in limbo by whatever the two beings had done to it.

A large space, barren space otherwise. The Pains all stood in a small circle and sat cross-legged on the cold ground, though he did not truly feel it. He withdrew his chakra from them until only small slivers of control and consciousness remained in them. It all returned to his main self, still high in the tower, and he drew himself into a meditation.

 _It must happen. There is no other way to stop them._

 _The Reverse Creation. Gyaku Sakusei._

He took a deep breath and harnessed the chakra within himself. He felt it inside himself, ready to be manipulated and molded to how it needed to be. The question was not, however, whether he knew how to use it.

It was if he could.

He shuddered. _If Madara could entrust Obito, so I can entrust Konan._

She was educated, she served him, he could assure himself that she believed in him utterly, fully. It was why he allowed her to go and do these errands for him. He could not allow their previous friendship to interfere so heavily, even though sometimes he truly wanted it to, and noticed when she tried to let it be so.

 _There's no room for that here. Now, it's fight or die._

All at once, power surged back into the Pains. They jumped to their feet and spread about, except for the Animal Path, which did the hand signs for a summon jutsu and at once caused a great plume of smoke erupted. The large dog, sprouting many heads whenever critically wounded, appeared, snarling viciously but quickly quieting as it noticed that no enemies were around, only the six bearers it new to serve.

The Animal Path did a brief hand sign, then slammed a hand on the dog's side, breaking the summoning seal on it and yet keeping it trapped in real-space.

It howled viciously at the betrayal; it wasn't stupid, it knew what was coming. It swiped viciously at the Animal Path, catching it by the arm and sending it spinning away. However, the Path landed surely on its feet. The Six Pains gazed down upon the free creature, which eyes them all with frenzied eyes.

"Time to train," Nagato said through Yahiko, the enunciation sounding awkward. He ignored it, and the Pains leaped forward as the dog finally braced itself.

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

Her main self found the bodies of two samurai, dead, leaning against each other by the door. She forced it open in a flash and went through a long hallway, aware that there were sounds of violence coming deeper within the building. She increased her pace, distantly aware her paper clone was also entering the building. Her paper birds followed her in, providing a greater sensory view if she needed.

A battle was erupting in an arena-like reception hall. Sasuke and his teammates were battling several Land of Iron samurai, cutting them to pieces. He fought with a sort of controlled rage, she recognized it very easily, the most recent example being Raon-

 _Cycle of hatred will always repeat._ Nagato's voice, speaking so calmly and with assurance. It made her hesitate; was she here for Sasuke, or to perhaps get a shot at Danzo?

" _You!_ " a high pitched feminine voice snapped her out of her thoughts, but it was only Karin, the female teammate of Sasuke's group. She was also on the balcony like viewing of the battle before, staying out of harms way. Insults fanned through Konan's mind so high was her intolerance, but instead she demanded, "What the devil are you all doing here? The _Kage_ Summit? This what you decided to do in your free time?"

Her face turned as red as her eyes. "We're here on _your_ orders, smart one! Or rather Madara's, so who are _you_ -"

"What? We didn't tell you to come to the Kage Summit! We haven't had any communication with you since we split you off!"

Karin rolled her eyes. "Well _duh_ it didn't come from you! You're just his little messenger girl-"

Konan took a daring step forward, suddenly oblivious to shouts and death below.

The other held up mocking hands. "Alright, girl to girl talk not working out?"

" _Karin_ -"

"I meant you're _one_ of his messengers! Madara told Sasuke what Danzo did to his older brother, and so we headed out over here!" Karin paused, expecting another interruption, but Konan had no words for her. "So we're out here- on _Pain's_ orders! Did he think we couldn't pull it off? He really shouldn't underestimate Sasuke like that-"

Konan swore. Madara had escaped, it was obvious. And he was _still_ going to defy Nagato?

 _Cycle of hatred._ She smiled grimly despite herself. Nagato's words were ringing truer than ever; Sasuke was still dead set on revenge, though now he had a rather interesting target. _He should know better, who knows what Nagato is capable of. Next time, Pain won't spare him._

She brushed past Karin, who tried to go after her. Konan jumped down into the throng, and quickly cursed herself for not having stayed focused on what was going on. The Kazekage, whom Akatsuki had sealed before but somehow remained alive, had arrived along with his personal bodyguards, as well as what looked like a single Iwagakure shinobi. Sasuke stood in front of Jugo and Suigetsu, looking battered but strangely alive.

Konan moved towards them, her approach causing the violent Uchiha to eye her. "Stay out of this," he said coldly. His tone, she noted, was a much more vicious, relentless thing. The wavering hesitancy to seal his former teammates back in Pain's Tower was utterly absent, replaced by an almost repulsively hostile attitude.

"You weren't supposed to come here," she said flatly, still walking so she would stand between him and the gathered shinobi. "Madara was revealed to be a-"

"Stand aside, Akatsuki," the Kazekage called to her. "Our quarrel lies with Sasuke, though we would much rather broker peace."

"Peace?" Sasuke laughed metallically, sending an odd chill through Konan. "As long as Danzo of the Leaf lives, there can be no peace."

So Madara knew something that had convinced Sasuke risking his life to attack the most powerful shinobi - besides Pain - was worthwhile, if only to kill Danzo. Part of her desired to know what, to increase her own loathing for the old man, but she flung it aside, bearing Pain's mission in her mind. Her focusing had taken her away from being attuned to the paper clone that was searching for Kisame; she could only hope it was having much more peaceful progress.

The Kazekage nodded at them. "Danzo has indeed been implicated in treason. He attempted to manipulate the samurai Mifune into making him leader of an armed shinobi alliance." The pale green irises swiveled to Konan, drabbed in the Akatsuki cloak. "An alliance against the actions of the Akatsuki."

Her own eyes narrowed in defiance, but inside she felt a deep wave of apprehension. Things were out of order; not even the entire Akatsuki would have been able to fight off entire legions of jonin. The whole point of their operations was to remain covert enough that the abduction of tailed beasts wouldn't catch the attention of the great nations, before they could mobilize.

And now they were mobilizing. They had the tailed beasts, but now this unseen obstacle of the two beings barred their path. She remembered Nagato had asked Kisame to make a cookie trail back to Amegakure- was he intending to have the village destroyed as consequence as he failed?

"Get out of the way, Gaara," Sasuke said quietly, his wild laughter replaced by sudden deadliness.

"I don't want to hurt you, Sasuke Uchiha," Gaara said in return, not flinching beneath the others gaze. "But I will put the lives of the rest of the shinobi over yours if I have to."

"Your loss."

Konan whirled on him. "Sasuke-"

A great rumbling sounded behind the Kazekage and his entourage. Together, they all looked as from the hallway they'd entered, a small trickle of water emerged. Konan stared, knowing what was coming right efore it did. "Get up onto the balcony!" she snapped, spreading her wings.

The wall behind the Kazekage exploded into a mad rush of water. Kisame was visible in the blue mass as a wild speck. The rest of the Kage followed; she saw that Danzo, however, was not among them.

The Mizukage shot a thin jet of water at Kisame that cut through the wall easily, making him jump out of way, Sharkskin catching what aim was true and absorbing it.

"I think the jobs done!" he shouted at them. "Sorry, your paper clone caused things to go a little awry-"

"It doesn't matter!" she called back. She scanned the now flooded room; the Kazekage was busy helping the rest of the shinobi stay afloat of the torrent on piles of sand. The Mizugake's blue dress was shredded and bloody; no doubt Kisame's faked attempt. The small, elderly Tsuchikage looked unharmed but angry, flying above the water, eyeing them.

Sasuke was still in the water, standing on it while his others had fled to the balcony where Karin was at. The whole building was no doubt threatening to collapse with the violent water jutsu Kisame had unleashed, but Sasuke stood defiantly, as if daring one of the Kage to make a move.

And she'd had enough. "We're falling back, Sasuke. _Now_. There are things more important!"

"You aren't going anywhere, Akatsuki," the Tsuchikage snarled from across the arena-like chamber. "You dare to kill my guards, and harm the Mizukage? You criminals have overstayed your welcome on our continent."

"I want Danzo-"

Kisame leaped down next to Sasuke and tried to grab him. The Uchiha, however, sidestepped. A purple aura enveloped him, and Kisame stepped back, unsure of what he was looking at. Konan, also, did not know what to make of the glow. A power of the Sharingan, perhaps?

 _We don't have time for this!_ "Madara!" she shouted aloud, hoping by some chance he would hear. But nothing was forthcoming; he had sent Sasuke down a path of destruction, knowing full well it was out of his depth-

And intentional or not, he was going to get the rest of Akatsuki killed as well.


	15. Chapter 15 - Too Soon

**Thanks for the recent wave of follows and favorites on this story, I'm glad so many people are enjoying what I've done here. I'm anticipating around 3-4 more chapters plus an Author's Note. Stay tuned!**

 **Review Response:**

 **BlackDisciple:** Sasuke personality wise is still very much the same despite the clear changes in the story. As you'll soon see, it's going to be a make or break for him, as well as for the others. Not to mention that in my opinion Tobi/Obito would still actively be trying to manipulate him. Your notion that Konan and Nagato are _not_ affected by deep hatred like Sasuke is correct- and wrong, as you'll soon see.

 **Guest:** I'm gonna assume it's the same guy each time, but hold onto your disappointment a little while longer. Victory is assured for somebody, but who it is remains to be seen. Just hang tight.

 **lunasalsal:** For me, Nagato decided to spare Tobi for the very same reason Naruto decided to spare him in the actual storyline; he didn't want to continue the cycle of hatred, of which he made the entire philosophy and speech apart of and which greatly affects the story here. Killing Tobi would have been justified, yes, but it's moral weakness that made him not want to. As for the Kages, you'll see that unfold very quickly; Nagato has had a big plan forming since Tobi's deception was first revealed.

 **ZaxIoI:** I think you'll see part of what you're hoping for come true; I, like you, was always bummed Itachi basically remained a traitor despite what he did. Unfortunately, I couldn't really see a way to make that wholly known for this story's purposes. But, I do have an Itachi/Kisame story in the works, so you may yet get some satisfaction!

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

The dog cowered but snarled, defense and aggression, fear and fury. It was what any living being did when cornered in a hopeless situation, and it didn't know how to control itself.

It made it a easy target. Pain finished it swiftly, leaving the body broken in half, blood splattered in their robes, on the Gedo Statue, everywhere. And yet even as the deed was completed, Nagato didn't feel complete.

The answer was right in front of him, as well. He had not used Yahiko or the abilities of the Deva Path. His connection to him very firm, he had triple checked that. Yahiko's body obeyed his every command-

 _So why won't I utilize him?_ The other Pains he did so almost effortlessly, such was his readjustment to them over the past week. They were extensions of his capabilities, his power. It did not trouble him that they were dead people of his own village; in a way, they were doing more good than they ever could have alive.

He sought to meditate, seating all Six Pains before the Gedo Statue and closing their eyes while he underwent his own inner search in his skeletal frame. But he found no logic about refusing to use Yahiko.

 _Guilt._ Never absent after the battle with the Nine Tails.

 _Fear of misuse._ Uncomfortably present.

 _Pain._ Always.

At long last, he found the answer. At least, he thought it was. And it troubled him immensely. Hadn't he agreed to it already? Wasn't it the whole point of coming to peace Konan could be trusted with the legacy of peace? And yet, he couldn't shake such a primitive thing from himself, despite how far he had come-

 _I don't want to die._

He sighed. He was going to, one way or another. And he had swore not only to himself, but to Yahiko, Konan, Kisame, even Madara and the rest that for their sake, that he was going to take the two mysterious beings with him, no matter what it took. No matter what pain it brought him, he would succeed and fulfill the goal for peace-

A tremor. Not physical, but mentally. Through the rain, he felt _chakra_. Powerful and potent.

 _No._ _It's too soon._

The eyes of Pain opened anyways, and together they gave a wistful smile as they turned to face the Gedo Statue. _The world does work in mysterious ways after all. Here I am, doing what Jiraiya sensei always wanted of me, but even he tried to stop me. Madara, not even Madara, manipulating me. The world is mysterious. And now..._

The metal above the head of the statue was burning red, melting away. _And now, it provides me with no more time to act._

It peeled away, and together, Pain stepped forward to meet the threat it was not prepared to face, but would do so regardless.

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

The Tscuchikage struck first, his attack so quick Konan very nearly was caught in the see-through box of disintegrating matter. A high pithed sound vibrated, as the box suddenly shrunk to miniscule size.

By the time it had done that, everyone else had snapped into action. A skeletal purple arm, hanging from the strange ribcage surrounding Sasuke, lashed out at the Kazekage and his guards, who blocked them with a gust of air and finally a wall of sand he could only scratch at. Jugo, the calmer companion, released a series of chakra pulsations from his back that was met in midair by the Mizukage's water spout-

"Kisame!" Konan snatched at his back, getting his attention before he got involved. "We're not here to fight this battle," she said furiously at him, although he was not at fault whatsoever. If anything, Nagato was to blame for sending him here...

The other was tired and worn, no doubt from having escaped from the other Kage. "Believe me, I'm not fool enough to challenge the assembled Kage here," he said exasperatedly. "But we don't have too much of a choice right now. We as well have declared war-"

"And that's what Nagato wanted!" She tried to think of what could've drove him to such an idea; but if she wasn't able to think of an answer when she wasn't in combat, she certainly wouldn't be able to while she was. "We need a diversion; can you help me do it?"

"Diversion for what?"

"For us to get back to Amegakure. I feel... something's wrong."

"Something's wrong," Kisame repeated with only thinly veiled sarcasm. But he looked back at the fight, his face growing exasperated again. "But it's not me you have to convince it's time to leave."

Frustration seized her; was Sasuke so fixated on revenge that he couldn't accept there were greater things at stake here? Could he only focus on what was immeadiately in front of him, of what he could blast with his hate?

 _Cycle of hatred._

 _I know, Nagato!_ She shook her head, turned to Kisame as she started forming hand signs. "I'm going to need some sharks. I might have a way of ending this quickly. You're just going to need to trust me."

"You know, times like these I wonder why I joined you guys."

 **XXX**

 **Pain**

 **XXX**

They floated above the Gedo Statue's petrified head, looking down on the six assembled. The larger one lowered first, his sandals landing upon the metal floor with a clank. Five pairs of Rinnegan followed his every movement, while the Deva Path remained fixated on the smaller one, Momoshiki. Both were dangerous, but he knew that _he_ was the real threat here.

"You are the Guardian of this place?" the bigger one- Kinshiki, he remembered- asked gruffly.

"I am God," he said through the Deva Path, stepping forward to stand before the other Pains. The twin pairs of Byakugan focused on him instantly, their eyes cracking with intensity; they had not seen Yahiko's form before. That this was the one approaching them no doubt intrigued them. Pain contented itself knowing they didn't know the abilities of the Deva Path-

 _If I use them._

After a few moments, the smaller one laughed mockingly. "You are no God," it said seriously when it had subsided. "You have the eyes of divinity, but nothing more. You are just a _man_. Or _men_ ," it said, looking at them all in turn.

Pain did not flinch. "I will not allow you to take the rest of the tailed beast chakra."

"You won't allow, but what you command is not what we will obey," Kinshiki broke in. "It is you who will be listening to us- if you survive, that is?"

A small smile spread on their pierced faces, making the two frown. "And here I was hoping we could still negotiate."

He did not miss the red axe suddenly swinging at midlevel, elongated incredibly to sweep through the entire room. they collectively jumping, moving forward to land before Kinshiki with various chakra receivers of all sizes extended. The other retaliated by dropping the large axe and transforming his chakra into two red clubs. He swung them about himself, parrying all the incoming receivers. The Animal Path, coming from the top, planted a food on one of the clubs and took the air, his fingers turning into small metal projectile missiles. The Pains jumped away as Kinshiki finished his defense, and the missiles all fired towards the large being.

Before they could strike their target, they swept upwards, into the palm of the red Rinnegan embedded in the palm of the still hovering Kinshiki. The cloaks of Pain were just relaxing as the last missile vanished into his palm, and he smiled. "You humans have such interesting jutsu. Delightful." He raised his other hand, and suddenly a much larger swarm of finger missiles flew out of it, like a disturbed hornets nest.

The Pain's huddled together, this time the Preta Path taking point, both hands oustretched. An invisible shield formed before the hands, and the finger missiles vanished as they struck it, the essence of the chakra then disappearing back into the hands of the Preta.

Momoshiki cocked an eyebrow as he finally descended, landing beside Kinshiki. "Absorption as well? What else are you capable of, human?"

"Killing you."

The other laughed again, then from both his palm stretched out two chakra receivers of his own. "Kinshiki."

Pain paused. The other vanished his red weapons, stepped behind Momoshiki. His large hands came over his shoulders and lightly grasped the veil, then completely removed it. The pronounced horns on the other, appearing on either side of a hairline split down the middle, seemed to be much larger without the thin cloth. It seemed almost ridiculous for the larger being to have to do this simple act, but just as easily it seemed to be much more of a threat.

"You call yourself a God. What is your name?"

"I am Pain."

"Why is that?"

"Why do you care?"

Momoshiki shrugged. "You misinterpreted Kinshiki before. When he asked if you were the Guardian of this place, he did not mean of this tower. He meant of this World. Many times have I faced such people, the most powerful of their planet. Many times, I allowed them to live despite their arrogance."

He was unmoved by the threat, but through the mouth of Yahiko he still asked, "And why such mercy?"

"Not mercy. _Pain_." Momoshiki stepped away from Kinshiki, one simple footstep at a time, closer to the Six Paths of Pain. "Pain," he said again. "I made them watch as I destroyed their world. Everything they claimed to fight for and defend, they watched as I swallowed it. You have lived through small pain, but you do not know the full extent of it yet. I will teach you-"

"You can teach me nothing."

"Oh?"

Something in him had snapped. Above, a man called Nagato had his fists clenched, his blood boiling with loathing. "We will fight, and believe me, I _am_ going to kill you. But know this..."

A wild grin spread across Momoshiki's face as the Deva Path shouldered it's way past the others, also stepping forward towards the other to meet his approach. "My pain..." He raised a clenched hand, so deeply held the fingernails pierced the skin and blood ran down the palm to the wrist.

 _"IS STILL FAR GREATER THAN YOURS!"_

"Come."

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

The collapse of the entire fortified building hadn't been easy, but they had miraculously pulled it off. Kisame had flooded the chamber once more, while Konan had send explosive paper shuriken to destroy all the pillars, bringing the roof down on them all. The Kazekage had shielded those inside, she had certainly seen that, and even now she could sense they were alive, and regrouping.

She could also sense the fury bubbling right next to them. "Why did you do that?" Sasuke demanded, his Sharingan alive and calculative. "We would've had them!"

"This isn't the fight needed of you," she said shortly. "And Madara is not the one in control here. Pain is."

"Then why did he send us here on Pain's orders?" Suigetsu asked, the only one who seemed comfortable being soaked. His greatsword, broken in two, looked comical in all their disheveled states.

Kisame stepped in there. "Madara isn't Madara, he's Tobi," he growled. "Much has happened while you and these other children were off breaking rules on the playground."

 _"Playground-?"_

"You're needed in Amegakure- all of us," Konan snarled, her patience utterly broken. Something was deeply wrong, she could tell. Her sensory skills could not stretch across nations; it wasn't skill that was telling her there was danger. It was an almost intimidate sense, a premonition she couldn't explain but knew to be real. She turned to Kisame. "Can you show them the way?"

"Can _I_? What about you?"

She brushed her wet blue hair from her amber eyes. "Trust-"

"Enough 'trust me.'" Now he crossed his arms before her. "Give me a _real_ answer."

She couldn't tell them. She told herself that she was, however, going to tell them half the truth. "I need to get to one of the Kages first. They have something important for me. Hopefully, the rest will pick up your trail and pursue, now that the Summit is in shambles."

Kisame studied her, as did Taka. Sasuke looked angry but more relaxed, while Jugo stared at her, his emotions hidden. Suijetsu and Karin looked at her with clear mistrust, which she didn't care enough to comment on. Time was slipping away-

"You'll meet us there?" Kisame asked at last.

"Yes," she replied automatically, feeling a pang of guilt but quickly disregarding it. _I'm not lying._

He looked at the destroyed Summit building. "The Kages are picking up on us; they'll follow our greater numbers. You do what you need to." He paused, then added for emphasis, "I'm trusting you."

"I have no reason to abandon you or Nagato," she answered truthfully. "This is just something that has to be done- now go! I'll catch up!"

Sasuke uncrossed his arm. "If this is a waste of my time, we're done with Akatsuki," he swore to her. She felt disgust well up at the violence dwelling in his eyes, even his soul, and reminded herself that this was Madara's machination, for whatever twisted purpose he had tried to place Sasuke on.

She wondered what Madara was doing even now.

They split up, Konan heading back to the Summit while the others began sprinting for Amegakure. She had only gone a hundred yards when she stopped and sent a number of paper birds to investigate. From the wreckage, the powerful chakra signatures of the Kages were indeed emerging, and began to give chase to the larger group. Hopefully, Kisame's was faster. She hoped they would reach Nagato in time.

That left her alone, and she finally reestablished the connection her paper clone. Not lost, as Kisame had thought. But rather... sidetracked.

She honed in on its location and moved to intercept it, going as fast as she could, her vision blurring at the speed. At last... now... she knew what was coming, but didn't even know what she would say when she arrived. _What am I even after? Assurance, vengeance?_

 _Cycle of hatred-_

 _NO. Not like that-_

It was, and she knew it, but she told herself it didn't matter. Nagato would be doing the same.

The clone stood alone at the end of a long stone bridge that overlooked an immense gorge. A free drop down would almost certainly be a death. But she did not have eyes for the wondrous scar laid down upon the earth. Instead, she only had eyes for the blemish of humanity that stood before her, that has subconsciously stolen the attention of the clone and drawn it away to disobey her own will, that of Nagato's-

"I see. So we were being followed. It is of no consequence; a dead Akatsuki will only bolster my position back home." Danzo Shimurra looked upon her with his non-bandaged eye, while his two bodyguards stood protectively before him. "Your first mistake was adorning those treacherous cloaks, woman. Your last will be having tried to stop us here."


	16. Chapter 16 - Cycle of Hatred Part 1

**This is it, the final battle between our anti-heroes and our fearsome antagonists. These chapters are going to be much longer than the others as a forewarning, simply because there's so much good stuff to write in a battle like this.**

 **Pain**

 **XXX**

The blows from Momoshiki were at best described as elegant, and received as brutal. Nothing was wasted in the being's movements, who Pain was certain was _not_ a shinobi by any standards, but simply a creature that had learned to manipulate chakra to the highest degrees- and made himself a great danger out of it.

Every weave of the chakra receiver poles were meant to impale, stab, or create an opening meant to do so. At the same time, Pain simply couldn't get near enough to penetrate his defenses. More than once the other was able to simply break the receivers and force a retreat to create new ones, and other times simply blocked all avenues of attack.

The Human Path lunged with a several meter long receiver, seeking not to wound but to distract. Momoshiki saw the incoming pole of course, and side-stepped with a simple movement. Waiting for him on the other end were the Preta and Asura Paths, each looking to stab through the midriff.

Instead of landing into the trip, the being simply took to the air. "Your moves are coordinated as if you all share the same set of eyes- or body," Momoshiki commented as he soared over them, wielding one long receiver. Kinshiki stood off to the side, on the word of his superior not to interfere. Pain wondered how much more frustrating the fight would grow should he get involved.

"My Byakugan, however, gives 360 degrees of vision. Assaulting from my blind spot will do you nothing."

"Byakugan are found on this planet as well," Pain replied through the Asura Path, making Momoshiki frown. "They are uncommon, but not godlike."

"Neither are your abilities!" Momoshiki dived down, swinging the chakra receivers outward from an X shape. They struck the Asura Path with enough force to break both shoulder joints, but the mechanized body took it in stride. The fingers modified into long, snake-like whips as the shoulders blew apart. The metal coils found Momoshiki and wound around him, strapping the pale arms to his side.

The Naraka Path jumped forward and collected the broken-jointed Asura Path, while the Human and Animal Paths leaped up and grabbed Momoshiki, dragging him down to the ground while he attempted to free himself. The Byakugan glared with disgust into the purple-ringed Rinnegan, though it seemed more out of annoyance of being touched than the current predicament.

"I have you." The Preta Path also came forward, and placed both hands on the shoulders of Momoshiki, and began absorbing chakra. The other two Paths held him still while Pain sifted through the others chakra as quickly as he could through the Preta. _The Tailed Beast Chakra has to be here somewhere-_

He felt it a few moments before it happened; the Paths released him and the Preta erected another absorption shield before him. The chakra buildup it had detected came out explosively from both hands of the being as waves of molten red fire that crisped the air. He could not feel the heat, but the air trembled and blurred as the molecules sped up and evaporated.

The metal coils were gone, and Momoshiki redirected his aim directly for the Preta. "How much can you take before you break?" he asked mockingly, an inane smile across his pale face. " **Deep Crimson Flame!"** The fire- or lava, whatever it was- turned the vision of all the Rinnegan into a hot mess that they could not see past-

But those of the King of Hell could. The Naraka Path, aware that Kinshiki was watching, finished the jutsu and the Asura Path stepped out of the mouth of the summoned creature that rejuvenated their wounds and damages like some sort of repair shop. Standing high above the others, it saw Momoshiki levitating up into the air again, still spilling the molten magma.

Laughing.

Doubt flickered through the mind of the man called Nagato, through whom Pain was personified, made real. _Am I not making a dent in this being? It seems to treat all this as some sort of game. Is it really that powerful?_

Just as suddenly as the flames had appeared, they stopped, revealing Momoshiki to the rest of the Paths. The being cocked its head, pointed across the room. "I have seen all of you fight, except the newcomer. Why do you not fight?"

The Deva Path stood apart from the rest, and it was no mistake that it did so. The Rinnegan in its sockets narrowed, but it gave no reply.

"Speak."

He ignored it, and Kinshiki said angrily, "You wil answer when you are spoken to!" He suddenly swept forward, and Pain felt a collective grimace. _He's involved now… I can't do this alone._

 _Just use the powers of the Deva Path!_

 _Can I?_

The red weapons spun out of Momoshiki's back as if he were flinging them, axes, swords, knives, and clubs all arching towards the Deva. At the same time, Momoshiki raised his left hand. " **Severing Cyclone Edge!"** Thin bursts of wind chakra, blown and narrowed to nearly microscopic size, burst out of the left red Rinnegan like slashes of a sword. Pain, too occupied with moving the Deva Path out of the way of Kinshiki's attack, responded too slowly. The Human Path took a gash that nearly split it in half. The Preta and Animal Paths slipped away in time, leaving the Human Path to wither and roil as the body tried to stay alive through the will of the user-

The Deva Path dodged all the incoming red weapons, twisting through the air to avoid them all. The weapons dissipated as they missed but still more were coming as if intent on finding and piercing him-

"So weak, so weak!" Momoshiki's metallic laughter filled the tower. "You are no God after all! You cannot even protect yourself!"

Kinshiki's large form snapped into focus, another large axe clutched in both hands, drawn over the head to bring down-

" **ALMIGHTY PUSH!"**

The chakra release buffeted Kinshiki back completely, and knocked the remaining red weapons away. The tower shook with the force, and the Deva Path stood with its arms raised, head looking to the heavens, a grimly satisfied smile on its face as Momoshiki Byakugan widened with, finally, surprise.

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

The way he spoke was to one of contempt, but not familiar, and she felt her base burn with contained anger. _He doesn't recognize me. I bet he didn't recognize us during the attack on the Leaf either._

"Your assault on the Kage Summit has failed," Danzo continued, his voice crackled with age. Nevertheless, she knew he could not have become Hokage if his skills were not formidable. The two guards in front certainly looked as if they might give her a problem first. "The Akatsuki has made a mistake they will never recover from. You fools-"

"This isn't about the Akatsuki- not really." Her blue hair swept, as did the short, spiked rim of Danzo in a breeze. The other's eye was almost closed, but she knew he was studying her. "This is about _us_."

"Us? I don't know you."

"Don't you?" She held her hand, gesturing loftily in the direction Amegakure lied. "Many years ago, you collaborated with Hanzo the Salamander, leader of the Village Hidden in the Rain to eliminate us early on." Her fist clenched. "Do you remember me now?"

"Akatsuki was a burden on society even then," Danzo said dismissively. "I could not allow Amegakure to acquire stability that could threaten Konohagakure during its feud with other Great Nations."

"So you purposely tried to kill us, only to prevent Amegakure from knowing peace?" she demanded. _Cycle of-_

 _Shut up._

 _But Nagato needs you to come back!_

"My village takes priority," Danzo sniffed. "Would you not say yours takes the same? Although I see by your headband you have forsaken Amegakure…"

"You killed a young man called Yahiko that day." Paper began stripping off her arm, body, leg. The two escorts closed the gap between themselves, completely hiding Danzo from view. The old cretin sighed. "Fuu, Torune, take her."

The two charged forward, one sporting bright orange, wavy hair and a short blade and the other with cropped black hair and goggles on. The paper formed about her like a wave striking a rock, ascending around her-

The air rippled between them in a spiral fashion, and they all paused before they could attack one another. A spiral shape formed, and Konan grimly knew who as arriving from it. "Why show your face now?" she demanded.

"To help." Tobi thrust both hands forward and smacked both Fuu and Torune away, to the right and left. They stumbled away, perplexed.

Danzo, exposed, stated simply, "So you've returned. Do I have you to thank for the assault on the Summit?"

"Sasuke was spreading his wings," Tobi said to him, then turned his masked head back to Konan. "And I am still with you. This was all on Nagato's asking."

 _Was it?_ But before she could even fathom a question, he said, "I'll handle the spares. You… you do what you came here for." He attacked Torune, leaving Danzo standing on the bridge alone.

She hesitated, the floating paper also seemingly held back. _Am I doing this? But for who? Yahiko, myself, the former Akatsuki? What's to be gained here, when Nagato needs everyones help back at the base-_

" **Wind Style: Vacuum Slashing Wave!"**

Instantly she snapped bac into focus, releasing a large column of paper too stand before her. The slicing wind cut deep into the pillar, but the chakra infused paper had the same thickness as a pillar of concrete, and it stopped before it could reach her. More floating paper above her transformed into spinning paper shuriken, and they raced across the bridge to Danzo. He dodged them all, his agile moves proving to her there was much more beyond the frail frame he liked to present. _A good cover, as good as a deceptor as you always have._

The pillar of paper dissolved into many sheets, and they fanned out onto the floor like a swarm of bugs crawling across the landscape. Danzo studied them as he removed his cloak. Konan's eyes narrowed as she took in a golden enclosure wrapped around Danzo's arm like some sort of animal. _A sealant of some sort. Containing what though?_

She stretched out her one arm. _I'm not going to wait to find out._ The ocean of paper continued to move forward slowly, coating the entire bridge, but some began to shoot out in the shape of miniature paper airplanes. Danzo once again took to dodging as they began to explode in proximity to him; the paper bombs snuggled into each plane began to rip apart chunks of the bridge as he arched around the support beams.

" **Wind Style: Vacuum Sphere!"** A ball of condensed wind accumulated before Danzo, and the paper that struck it exploded or dissolved entirely. Konan stopped the airplanes and instead focused on creating an explosve spiral-

The sphere shot forward, parting the sea of approaching paper as it raced towards her. She jumped to avoid it, abandoning the half-formed paper spiral shuriken. She quickly began to form another while Danzo simply stood there, removing the guards on his gauntlet.

She took note that Madara and Danzo's guards were nowhere to be seen; either the fight had carried to below the bridge, or the fight was already over.

Meaning he was either gone or watching the fight unfold. _What are you playing at? Working on Nagato's orders how?_

"You Akatsuki cannot be allowed to continue your actions," Danzo said. "When I lended my hand to Hanzo, I had expected it would be the last I ever hear of you. Instead, your organization grew even beyond the boundaries of your insignificant little nation."

"You tried to destroy us, and instead you only gave us the strength to find a way to put an end to people like you!"

"And yet I do not recall your face. Like your nation, you are also negligible-"

She thought back to that Day, when Hanzo had held the kunai knife to her throat and ordered Nagato to kill Yahiko, or he in turn would kill Konan. Hadn't she only been a tool in the machine that concluded that day?

 _No, I don't believe that. There's a reason I'm alive, and that I was spared that day. Yahiko is gone, but Nagato will never leave._ Her lips grew into a deep frown as Danzo loosened the last bolt on his arm. _And not to people like him, who work in the shadows._

"Still, the Akatsuki and Root have not been very different, have they woman?" Danzo looked at her impassively. "Working from the shadows, under a leader who's outward appearance is very different from what lies beneath."

"That's not true," she said a little too quickly.

"Continue to deceive yourself, then. By the end of this battle, it will not matter."

The golden gauntlets fell off, as did the bandages beneath them. Konan stared in shock; Danzo's arm was completely filled with swiveling, pulsating red eyes all implanted into a sickly, wrinkled, cream-colored skin. She felt a revulsion of looking upon them, but she was quickly able to put pieces of the puzzle together.

"That's why Sasuke wanted to kill you so badly," she said slowly. "You had a hand in the Uchiha Massacre? Knowing you, I can't believe I never guessed it before."

"For the betterment of the village," Danzo agreed. "Their deaths, like yours, all serve that purpose."

She smirked. "I don't agree. **Paper Whirlpool!"**

Danzo's mouth opened into an "O" before he suddenly was sucked down into the ocean of paper that had long before surrounded him. She did the hand sign, and the hole suddenly blew up, orange fire of explosive tags raging upward in a testimony of fire.

Konan felt as if a great weight had been taken off her shoulders. _For Yahiko,_ she said softly to herself, and she raised her hand to her chest and clenched it.

"Clever, had I not been acutely aware of the paper the entire time." Konan opened her eyes, and a kick hard enough to make her teeth clank painfully together hit her in the head, sending her tumbling to the hole Danzo had just died in-

 _He's not dead?_

She skidded to a stop on a knee, disbelieving. But it was Danzo, standing before her completely unharmed. His one normal eye looked at her without any trace of anger, annoyance, or even satisfaction. She retracted the paper back into her body, unsure of her next move.

"You wish to acquire revenge on me, is that it?"

 _Revenge?_ She blinked. _No-_

"I'm going to end this," Danzo stated flatly. "Starting with you, I, Danzo the Sixth Hokage, will begin the extermination of the Akatsuki!"

 **XXX**

 **Pain**

 **XXX**

Momoshiki observed him with an almost idle fascination. "What technique is this?"

The Deva Path lowered its arms, the bottom half if its face shielded by the collar of the Akatsuki cloak. The purple-rimmed Rinnegan stared across the expanse at the being. The other Five Pains stood back, at bay.

"One beyond your understanding or usage." The body of Yahiko pointed at the other being. "You know nothing of the pain needed to acquire this power. You were gifted it, created as a God. I _forged_ to be one."

"But what does it matter." Momoshiki extended a black receiver rod from his left palm, and the Deva Path did the same from its right. "Man cannot ascend beyond its humanity; you delude yourself to a higher importance." Momoshiki's Bykaguan narrowed. "There is nothing of a hundred worlds that can touch me. And you will not be the first!"

They both leaped for each other at the same time, and the receiver poles clashed in a shower of yellow sparks. The Deva Path's calm Rinnegan looked back into Momoshiki's annoyed Byakugan.

"Kinshiki, enough messing around. I've grown tired of playing."

"Yes, Lord Momoshiki."

The other Pain's readied themselves as the bigger being released a large red, double-bladed, double-edged axe appeared in both his hands. For such a large being, the Pains were almost caught in the first great swing of the weapon. The Human Path tried to block with a chakra receiver rod and was bemused to see it easily slit in half- this weapon had a much higher concentration of chakra that had greatly increased its slicing range.

" **Summoning Jutsu!"** The Animal Path splayed its hand on the floor, and the giant Rinnegan-eyes rhino appeared, instantly snapping into a horned-attack at Kinshiki. The greater being raised the axe and with a roar brought it directly down into the creature's skull. The main horn split in half down the middle, while the axe broke through the equally tough skull. The rhino gave one great bellow before it was defeated, taken out in one strike.

"Gah!" Kinshiki bellowed as well; the Asura and Naraka Paths had gone to his exposed sides, and each shot out a long, thin black receiver pole that went in one side and out the other. As the pole exited on either end, each of the Path's caught the other and held it, pinning Kinshiki in place.

The Preta Path landed behind and planted its hands on the back, quickly beginning to suck the chakra out of the other. Kinshiki's head turned, his pale face contorted. "So bothersome for being so weak!"

"It's not the weak one's whose gotten themselevs trapped."

Finally, the Human Path landed in front of the large Otsutsuki, and he looked down at it imperiously. The other splayed its hands as if reaching for something, then shot the right hand forward into his chest.

Kinshiki's great mouth opened. "Wha- what is this? What are you do- _ahhHhhhHH!"_

Something clear, corporeal, and hazy purple was emerging from Kinshiki's chest, held in the hand of the Human Path. The Naraka Path came to stand behind the Human, doing the hand-signs to summon the King of Hell.

Kinshiki began to sweat, his eyes narrowed in fury. "You... I know what this is. My soul… you're drawing it from my body!"

Pain did not reply but only increased the intensity of the attack as the Deva Path fought Momoshiki yards away.

Momoshiki let loose another splicing wave of sound that the Deva Path effortlessly blew away with another Almighty Push. They clashed again with the chakra receiver, swiping not like swords but like knives, trying to impale the other.

And Pain, for all the advantage he was having now, knew that would be the end game. _The chakra of the large being is too strong for me take his soul,_ he thought grimly. _I can only incapictate him until help arrives; the Gyaku Sakusei will only serve one blow, and I have to use it on Momoshiki._ They again met, Momoshiki seeking to run him through the shoulder, and his other hand came and slapped it away. _And it'll have to be used on this one._

The fact that he needed help bothered him; never before had Pain required the help of others. Konan had always been his messenger, never his partner, though certainly he liked to think of her that way. But reality was that Pain was powerful, was _God_ \- and yet here he was, accepting that these two beings would, eventually, destroy him without the help of others.

Momoshiki somehow seemed to sense his unease. "You claim divinity, but Gods have no doubt!"

"You're right- facing you head on, therefore, has never been a question! **Almighty Pull!"**

The other flinched as his feet dragged a moment, and the Deva Path grimaced as he realized that he was resisting the standard level of gravity. He increased the intensity, and Momoshiki's footing lost and he began to soar towards him. Pain raised the black rod to run him through the chest-

" **Divine Howling Halo!"** Lightning, so powerful it burned white, came from Momoshiki's hand and arched around Pain, taking the shape of great, howling wolves. The Rinnegan watched them, hoping they wouldn't attack before the receiever pierced-

One of the wolves gave an eletronic snarl then bit down on the hand holding the receiver. Instantly he abandoned the gravitational pull. " **Almighty Push!"** The wolves were blown away, the white light fading. Momoshiki, however, kept coming despite the sudden repulsion coming off him-

The other's rod struck him in the shoulder, and suddenly he felt as if a great weight had been pressed upon his shoulder. Chakra, more powerful and much larger than his own, filled the body. And what was worse-

"I see," Momoshiki murmured. "You are not even alive. Your chakra, like all the others, are the same. Someone is controlling you…" He smiled mirthlessly. "Perhaps I should find the real man behind all this?"

The western wall, the one closest to them, blew outward, spraying everyone with dust. The other Pain's maintained their grip on Kinshiki, though he roared and the chakra rods began to break while still impaling his body. The Human Path struggled to maintain it's concentration, only a quarter of Kinshiki's soul out even with the aid of the Naraka Path-

"Sorry for the late arrival," Kisame growled, hefting the great blade Sharkskin in one hand. "Distractions are so frivolous these days, are they not?"

"Interference from more fools," Momoshiki snapped, not even sounding annoyed anymore. His anger was palpable, and the Deva Path actually felt slightly disturbed. He yanked the chakra receiver out with a grunt, quickly feeling the others chakra leave him as his own stabilized.

 _But was he able to locate the origin of my own chakra?_

Sasuke Uchiha and his comrades stepped out on either side of Kisame. "These are the beings you spoke of, huh?" the young Uchiha attested. "I've never seen anything like them before…"

"Their chakra is like nothing I've felt either, Karin said behind him, her voice subdued in fear. "It's almost alien-"

"Kisame, take the others help destroy the other one!" The Deva Path shouted, getting back to its feet. He saw, with a feeling almost like depression, that Konan wasn't there among them… what had happened to her?"

"Confident you can fight me all by yourself?" Momoshiki snarled. "This… is the last mistake you'll ever make, human!"

With his chest oddly heavy, he extended the black rods and resumed the seemingly endless battle.


	17. Chapter 17 - Cycle of Hatred Part 2

**Review Response:**

 **BlackDisciple:** You'll see in this chapter that in my opinion, taken from a realistic perspective, confronted by the man who was responsible for such a sharp turn in her life blinded Konan's rational. Her hatred for Danzo _is_ real, just buried. I take the possibility for this from Pain himself, who expressed, when he had Naruto pinned just before his transformation, he stated he was taking vengeance upon the Leaf. Konan and Nagato appear calm, but their anger and pain is very present and just waiting for a release, like many other characters. And yes, Momoshiki and Kinshiki are definitely not going to make things easy :)

 **ZaxIoI:** You'll find the results are close at hand... and probably not what you're expecting.

 **OceanLord2017:** Initially I kept Kisame around because I wanted to experiment with him in this new storyline, and he just naturally developed as comic relief from the dark tones that are layered throughout. Glad you're enjoying the story and are in suspense, and if you like in-depth looks into character philosophies and stories I'd say check out some of my other "Tale" stories (shameless plug).

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

Her paper bombs tore chunks out of the bridge, and shuriken parted the air with their speed. But even what Danzo wasn't able to counter or dodge and actually struck him, he just wouldn't stay _dead_.

And even Konan had to admit that it was getting to her. Everytime he reappeared he reaffirmed that she would die, that Akatsuki was lost, that their purpose was _over_.

"There's no escaping here!" she shouted, ripping Danzo in half with a sharpened paper disc. But even as the bisected body landed before her, the old, bandaged man with the strange Sharingan arm appeared behind a support pillar, shaking his head at her.

"You should be the one thinking about escaping," he said coldly. "I will wear you down, and I will back you into a corner you cannot escape. You will be the first to die, along with Madara Uchiha and the other members of Akatsuki."

But the knowledge that Danzo new- or thought he knew- who Madara was only told her that the two had known each other, maybe been in league. Her hands splayed with more shuriken that Danzo blasted away. _He knew Tobi was a threat, was posing as Madara, but still worked with him? There's no end to this man's evil-_

An afterimage of Yahiko, falling onto Nagato's kunai knife, blood gushing from his lips, haunted her eyes and obscured her reality with memory. _No-_

Danzo struck her across the face with the closed fist of his normal hand. She spun away, spinnong on her sandals before catching his next blow. She caught his modified arm by the hand and was repulsed by how sickly and wooden it felt. Konan let his momentum carry her before swinging her foot around to hit him in the back-

He allowed his movement to carry him forward while his fingers made a set of hand signs. " **Wind Style: Vacuum Wave!"**

She leaped back, avoiding the firm gust of air that split the air and trimmed the entire sleeve of her empty arm socket away. Her blue hair whipped behind her as she leaped forward. Danzo, not expecting her to try close quarters fight so soon, was slammed into the pillar behind him.

"Stay dead this time, Danzo." She raised the paper kunai and drew it across his neck. He gagged, but his bloody lips drew into a smile…

She closed her eyes and fell to a knee, breathing hard. The earlier brawl with the other Kage was wearing her down, she felt her muscles straining with the effort it took to even stand. Yet Danzo was freshly rested, unless you counted the run he'd had coming all the way out here…

"As I said, you'll wear yourself out."

Konan gritted her teeth and stood up. _I won't yield to him. I did that Day, and I won't ever do it again!_ She turned to face him, saw that he was just looking away from his arm. Was it her, or was some of the red glow of the Sharingan gone, like they had closed?

"You cannot last against me. I will kill you here, then Madara will follow."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? Anyone's expendable as long as they don't further your goals to enhancing the Leaf Village."

"Can you not say the same about the Akatsuki?" Danzo countered, his wrinkled face tightening with annoyance. "How many lives have been spent to get where you are now? And how many more will pay the price to fulfill your end goal?"

She thought of the factory woman and her son- their names were lost to her now, their deaths, delivered by her hand, all but forgotten. She felt a surprisingly twinge of guilt that was quickly replaced by a much more horrific one.

 _The Gedo Statue. The Tailed Beast Weapons Nagato wants to create…_

For peace. She bit her lip. _Our methods are barely different from what Danzo is doing with one village alone._

" **Fire Style: Incineration Vortex Jutsu!"**

Konan erected a wall of paper before herself, but Danzo's hot orange flames were not spilling in front of him. Instead they came around her sides, encircling her. She began to sweat quickly, and she stared across the flames at the other. Her paper was smoldering, the fire closing in from every angle upon her.

 _I won't concede to him, not ever. Not to that MONSTER-_

Then to her, shock, he was enveloping himself in his own flames. His skin charred black and he crumpled, his clothes and skin alight. The fire jutsu ended, leaving her sweaty and with superficial burns, but alive.

 _What was-_

Her breath came short. From her chest, a swirling mist of yellowish-clear air protruded. Blood spilled from the wound, and from her mouth. In disbelief, she turned around.

"Akatsuki has lived as long as _I_ allowed it," Danzo murmered in her air. "You all _live_ in my reality, my plans. It was my mistake to not ensure you were killed off back then- that changes today."

"You _do_ remember me, then." She shoved herself off the chakra blade he had run her through with, clutching the wound. Her Akatsuki cloak was drenched in red down the front, the red clouds looking as if they were physically weeping their blood. She fell down onto her knees, but she refused to let go.

 _Not now. Not when I'm this close._ A shadow fell over her; on the closest stone pillar, Tobi had appeared. With the Sun behind him, she could not tell if he was looking down on them or not.

"I recognized you, yes." Danzo was walking towards her, apparently oblivious to Tobi's presence above. She wondered if the other was just going to watch her die. Still, she focused upon Danzo's words, each one striking her like an icy needle in her skin. "You, your former leader Yahiko, the boy with the Rinnegan, Nagato. I remember that day very clearly."

"And you have no regrets about what you did?" she said viciously. "Killing Yahiko, helping cripple Nagato, holding me hostage? Where is your humanity?"

"I could ask the same about Pain." Danzo stopped behind her. "Our groups have led separate paths that conflict with each other, until it has led to this final confrontation. I will not fail here."

" _I will not fail." She was much younger, standing with Yahiko, tending his wounds in their old orphan home where Jiraiya had trained and lived with them. He looked down at his lip, determination etched into his handsome features._ " _I won't fail us. Not you, not Nagato, not any of our countrymen. I'll unite the province."_

" _I know you will," she said soothingly. "Let me finish bandaging-"_

" _I mean it," he said sincerely. "You and Nagato, you're the most important things to me. Our parents all failed us, made us strike out on our own." His lip quivered; it was the first time he had ever mentioned their collective parents to her. She held his wrist gently, steadying it._

 _He looked at her, and her heart fluttered with emotion. "I won't ever allow you guys to end up striking out on your own," he said quietly. "Never."_

It ended, reality returning; the reality that Danzo had created.

And finally, it settled in her almost calmly. _I hate him. I've always hated him for what he took away from me: the old Akatsuki, Nagato, Yahiko, our innocence. Instead he only left me with… Pain._

Tobi's shadow shifted, and Danzo, looking down at her saw the light suddenly shift and looked up.

" **Paper Truth Star!"**

Danzo stumbled back as her hand grabbed his modified Sharingan arm. The kunai clutched in it struggled in his grasp. From her only arm, paper was latching onto him like ants crossing from one tree branch to another. His face contorted. "What is this-?"

"I've been watching you through the battle," she said quietly, her grip on him tightening unnecessarily; already the entire arm was covered in the paper. "You do hand signs to activate this reality-altering jutsu of yours. You're not very adept at hiding it, even though without it you'd have died several times over."

"Just as you should've died that Day instead of Yahiko!"

She knew Danzo had never even been involved in the fighting, had not even known who he was at the time. And yet, her hatred for him was making the words fall without any true meaning.

Danzo's other arm came down on the paper, trying to sever the connection. Instead, it became stuck there as the moving sheets covered that arm, too. He tried to move his fingers into hand signs, but they were glued in place.

"Stupid girl!" He tried to twist his entire body around, to bring his feet up to her kick her in the head. Instead, her immovable frame caused him to fall awkwardly upon the ground. "No- no!"

The paper by then had covered his entire body, sealing his mouth shut, holding him petrified. She disentangled her own arm from the paper mass that was the acting Sixth Hokage, and did another hand sign. The paper became to multiply, spreading out from Danzo in the shape of a five-pointed star, making it appear from his armpits and legs he was developing webbing similar to that of a ducks.

Muffled noises came from behind the paper, but she no longer had any interest in what he might say.

" **Paper Crumpling Technique!"**

And like that, it was over. The webbing-like modifications folded inward on Danzo's body, bending it inward to an inhuman degree with multiple sickening _cracks_ and _squelches_.

Breathing hard, she allowed the paper to fall away. Miraculously, he was still clinging to life, although his rib cage had been broken and all his limbs having their bones equally shattered. He lied there in a pool of his own blood and the paper that had destroyed him.

He seemed to be trying to speak, but Konan looked away. "That was for Yahiko," she said with quiet venom. "And for who knows how many more."

"And how many more to come?"

She didn't turn around, feeling too tired to do so. "Nagato didn't send you here. Are you going to kill me, too?"

"Far from it." Tobi came to stand beside her, looking down on Danzo's last moments. "He told me he wanted me to train Sasuke; this was the fastest way to do so."

"How do you see that?" She snorted, her hair hanging loosely around her. The blue flower in her hair, she noticed, was gone; burned away by Danzo's attack, perhaps. She felt oddly hollow without it.

"How? You're living proof of it Konan." He waved a hand at Danzo carelessly. "Hatred. The quickest way to mature. The quickest way to gain immediate strength. It gave you the strength to finally end Danzo here; it certainly allowed Sasuke to hold his own against the Kages, for as long as he did. All in preparation for when those beings return; which they have, at any rate."

He didn't seem to notice her predicament. "This is still a large step. Hypothesizing Nagato is actually capable of killing the two beings with the rest of the Akatsuki, the removal of Danzo leaves the Leaf Village rudderless, and the Kage's an entire nation short. Our plan will progress like never before- oh?"

 _What have I done?_ Blood loss and a sickening sense of dread coagulated into a slimy feeling building inside her. She looked at her hands, the blue nail polish smeared red, the skin tinted crimson as well. _What have I done here? I left Nagato alone-_

 _We must break the Cycle of Hatred. Remove ourselves from vengeance-_

 _I embraced it. What have I done-_

"Konan!"

" _What have I done?"_ She lashed out at Tobi, grabbing him by the front of his cloak. "Now, it's happening _now_?"

"Yes," he said calmly, taking her hands off his cloak. "They are already fighting. Did you not know? I thought it was why you sent them back- unless you were acting on instinct?"

And she had, but at the same time she'd _known_ something was wrong. And yet, her anger, her demand for vengeance against Danzo had caused her to consciously ignore her own judgement.

If Pain lost, because she wasn't there-

"You knew, didn't you." Tobi said it with an air of almost disbelief. "You came out here to kill Danzo, even though you sent the others back." For a moment he was silent, and then he chuckled. "It's always the quiet ones, isn't it? You never suspect they're the most vehement until their actions do the talking."

 _What have I done?_ She looked down at Danzo, abandoning Tobi. _He should die, needed to die- but today shouldn't have been the day._

"There's time." He grabbed her this time, and she saw the air ripple around them. "We have time- hold onto me, Konan. There's still time to help Pain."

 _The Cycle of Hatred. What have I done?_

 **XXX**

 **Pain**

 **XXX**

Flaming birds, winds of over a hundred kilometers an over, rocks taken from the metal ground and hurled as fast as kunai. The Deva Path flowed like a dancer, disabling them all and throwing attacks back. The boulders became counter-projectiles, gusts of his chakra sending black receivers spinning away.

Each time an attack of his failed, Momoshiki grew more incensed. The veins of his Byakugan looked close to popping, and some had appeared on his scalp. Frustration and not being able to kill this "human" seemed to be getting to him.

Pain smiled. "Having difficulty, creature?"

"You will never walk again!" As if to emphasize his point, the ground around Pain suddenly latched onto him and knee-level, pinning him in place to the earth. He blasted the ground with a Universal Pull, throwing himself into the air and lobbing black receivers down. Momoshiki gnashed his teeth as he swung a receiver of his own about him, knocking the projectiles away.

The other Pains, with Kisame, Sasuke and the rest of Taka, had Kinshiki done for. He had broken free of the Human Path's technique, but he was deeply shaken by it. The broken pieces of the chakra rods remained stuck in his body as a permanent impairment. No amount of glowing red weapons were able to hold back the combined, if wearisome, attacks.

 _They were busy at the Kage Summit,_ Pain thought, and above, the one called Nagato felt his chest tighten uncomfortably. _Enough to keep Konan from returning?_

No sign of her, even after all this time. It unnerved him.

Sasuke swung his lightning-enhanced sword down and through the thin handle of Kinshiki's chakra sword. Before he could create another one, Kisame had hit him with a water shark head-on, buffeting him into a wall.

Kinshiki roared and blue lightning raged from him in a repulsion. Suigetsu recoiled, his skin sloughing slightly while everyone's hair stood on end.

The Pains, unmoved, focused their chakra into the rods still impaled inside Kinshiki. Instantly the lightning stopped as his agitated chakra refused to properly produce the elemental chakra. He roared again, but no attack came forward.

"Your partner is done for," Pain commented through the Deva Path. "You're next to follow."

To his surprise, Momoshiki smiled. "Are you certain?" He unleashed a flourish of molten lava, which he blew away. But it kept coming, longer than the duration of the Almighty Push could handle, and he had to leap away-

The other was waiting for him, and the Deva Path grimaced as he was engaged in another parley of stabbing and clashing receivers, demanding his attention-

Suddenly, the connection to the Naraka and Asura Paths were broken. Confused, Pain reestablished fuller connections-

The other Paths had gotten free, but Kinshiki's attack was not done. A massive scimitar, three times as long as Samehada, swept across the room. It was stuck against Sauske's Susanoo ribcage, which was cracking with the sheer force of the attack-

Karin stood behind him, tried to feed him chakra. The remaining three Pain's tried to attack Kinshiki, but Momoshiki was relentless, a victorious, maddening smile on his face. _He's figured it out there's just one mind controlling the Paths. I can't control them all equally-_

The boy of Nagato panged painfully, and all the Paths froze, their connection disturbed. _I'm… I'm reaching my limits. This fight has carried on much to long, I never guessed the chakra levels of these beings would be greater than even the Nine-Tails._

"Sasuke!" Kinshiki's attack shattered the purple Susanoo, and Karin threw herself in it's path. The fraction of a second it took to cut her in half was enough for their silent teammate Jugo to grab Sasuke and pull him into the air out of the path of the swinging scimitar.

The tower groaned unhappily, and Pain realized with shock that the swing had done more than physically seen; it had completely sliced through three ends of the tower, stopping only where the Gedo Statue was.

 _It's going to fall._ The Rinnegan flicked to Karin, where her teammates crouched beside her while Kinshiki bellowed once more, his wounds steaming as they seemingly healed. _Dead… just like that. This wasn't meant to end like this-_

One receiver plunged into his chest, slamming him to the floor. He quickly tried to remove it, but Momoshiki hadn't thrown this one; he was on top of the Deva Path, holding it in place with one wounded knee.

"You have thought yourself to be very clever," he said breathlessly, the Rinnegan in his hands glowing bright red. "But you are nothing compared to us, in the end. A _God_? You are _nothing."_

"Pain!" Kisame shouted to the unmoving bodies, but the chakra agitation was far beyond just that of the Deva Path now. The loyal Akatsuki member swore and reengaged the enraged Kinshiki with a worrisome Sasuke and Jugo, while Suigetsu still kneeled beside the dead Karin.

He felt it inside him. Momoshiki had found his main body, the source of the chakra, at the top of the collapsing tower.

"Let us see how divine you are in person." From both Rinnegan he shot a dozen more receivers, utterly pinning Yahiko to the floor and disfiguring his body. There was no Naraka Path to heal his wounds anymore, or an Asura Path to let loose a volley of bombs to stop Momoshiki.

Pain was defeated.

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

But not Nagato. Nagato had never been defeated, though he suspected now this might be the case. Through the eyes of the Deva Path, he watched as Momoshiki's metallic laughter floated up with the main body as the tower began to shift unpleasantly around them.

 _That's right, come to me. See me face to face and let's see what you say…_

He was at peace, truthfully. As much as he could be; he knew what was coming, and though part of him yearned to flee, to escape, he not only knew such action was impossible, but that it didn't even seem attractive to him.

From here on out, it would be up to Konan.

 _Konan. I know you're alive out there._ He licked his bloodless lips, feeling depressed. _I'm sorry this is so sudden… there's so much I should've said to you…_

Below, the rumbles of the rest of Akatsuki fighting Kinshiki echoed violently. He tried to reestablish a connection to the rest of the Pains, but all he could do was return to the Deva Path, still pinned in place. It seemed Kinshiki had taken advantage of the temporary paraylsis and finished the other Paths off.

 _Not that it matters anymore._

The sound of sandals clacking upon the metal tongue of the entrance face announced the moment of peace had arrived. He banished every doubt of the fight below, every worry for Konan, every hesitation for his coming action. What mattered now was what he held the same courage his sensei Jiraiya had had when facing the Six Pains to discover their identity, the courage Naruto Uzumaki had had to come face Nagato in person in the paper tree.

Momoshiki's Byakugan swiveled, clearly searching for traps of some sort. Finding none, he entered, his clothes damp with the endless rain outside. He too in Nagato's skeletal, imprisoned form and his mouth actually opened in visible shock.

"This is a mistake? You are not him."

"I am."

"Impossible. Look at yourself; you are barely a shell of what you vermin should look like. You are telling me you are the one who controlled those puppeted bodies below?"

Nagato stared straight into the Byakugan, and Momoshiki's eyes widened with the confirmation. "Rinnegan… it _is_ you."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Nagato said scathingly. He did not even feel vulnerable to the disgust the other being had. _The moment is coming quickly. Don't restrain yourself…_

"Your claim to divinity is even weaker than before," Momoshiki said, almost harshly. He approached, retracting another black receiver from his palm. The large cage Nagato was in shifted slightly; the tower was beginning to tip in earnest. Time was ticking down, and quickly.

Momoshiki still spoke. "From my land, a being born as weak as you would have been stamped out upon birth. There is no room for you in that world, or this one." His lips curled cruelly. "I am doing this world a favor by destroying you."

"And I think you should stop talking so much. Your interference in my quest for peace… ends _here_!" Nagato's Rinnegan snapped open, and Momoshiki recoiled, no doubt sensing the shift in pressure. He raised his right hand's Rinnegan to absorb whatever was coming, but what was unleashed was beyond anything that could've been absorbed.

" **Gyaku Sakusei!"** His hands clasped together with a smack that for a moment drowned out the sound of the tower's collapse.

 _Reverse Creation._


	18. Chapter 18 - Reverse Creation

**Konan  
XXX**

They emerged in the thick of a battle that while not as large as when Pain had fought the Nine-Tails, seemed to convey even more of a power struggle as then. She stumbled to her feet from the nausea building in her.

"Konan!" Kisame snarled, holding a whining Samehada against the sharp red replica in the hands of the larger being. "Konan!"

Sasuke Uchiha and Jugo, from behind Kinshiki, released their own attacks: a blizzard of lightning senbon and a gust of yellow particle light. Kinshiki raised his other hand, which drew a double-sided axe from his back and blocked the attacks without any trouble.

"They're struggling," Tobi intoned.

"Are you going to help them?" Konan asked, trying to put venom into her voice but sounding almost breathless instead. "Are-"

The bodies of the Six Paths were strewn across the metal ground. The Deva Path- Yahiko, dear Yahiko- was pinned into the ground by perhaps a dozen rods. She ran over to him, leaving her sentence unspoken while Tobi looked at the continuing battle silently.

"Pain!" she grabbed the face, feeling the cold lifelessness of it. But the Rinnegan did not move to acknowledge her. It stared forward, oblivious, the mouth slack.

 _His attention isn't here. But the Rinnegan is still reflected in the eyes- he's alive, but struggling._ She looked up. _The top of the tower. Don't tell me the smaller being went after him-_

" **Chidori!"** Konan looked about; Kinshiki, both his arms occupied in a deadlock of blades with Kisame and Suigetsu, wasn't able to move in time. Sasuke's attack ran through his stomach, the entire hand going into the body and out the other, shoulder deep in Kisame's guts.

He roared in agony, and the wound seemed too much for him at last. _They've been wearing him down,_ Konan thought, and she felt a rush of appreciation for their abilities.

She ran over to them, Tobi still standing where they had come from, his eye trained not on Kinshiki, but the ceiling above them.

"Nice of you to finally come," Kisame growled. A shark tooth had been knocked from his upper teeth, and blood ran from a cut on the left side of his head down his neck and beneath his head. She raised her arm to his head and a few pieces of paper crawled up to the seal the wound. They grew red, but the bleeding stopped.

"Thank you," she whispered to him.

"Did you do what you needed to?" Kisame asked tiredly.

What had she even done back there? She wanted to banish the memory, pretend it had never happened, that she had almost not forfeited their lives for personal revenge. To continue a hatred that had no place of existing-

"Lord Momo-Momoshiki!" Kinshiki shook, suddenly animated. Sasuke looked up, confused, until Kisame's empty hand struck him with enough force to force him out of the former's body. The wound tore open more, but Kinshiki didn't seem to care. "I'm coming!"

"You're going nowhere!" Sasuke shouted. "For Karin!"

 _His hatred is gone._ She looked over at Karin's body, strewn across the floor in its own puddle of blood. _Not mindless vengeance, genuine agony. His choices led them all here._

Kinshiki, however, dodged all the attacks. Suigetsu's water pistol, Jugo's energy blast, Sasuke's Chidori sharp spear swing as he moved incredibly fast across the floor, going for a hole that fed into the outside-

" **Kamui!"**

Kinshiki's left leg tore off with Tobi's attack, but the rest of his body was too fast to be caught in it. Tobi swore then shouted to the others, "After him! We can't let them escape!"

But they were exhausted, wounded; Sasuke gave Tobi a scathing look before going over to Karin, looking for all the world regretful. Kisame sat down, a small smile on his face.

"What's so funny?" Tobi demanded.

Kisame chuckled. "I'm starting to think you thought you brought her here only to look pretty."

Tobi turned to the hole to see the paper wings ascend out of sight with only one flap.

"Save Pain!"

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

To an outside viewer, nothing extraordinary was happening. Nagato, in his metal holder, stared intently at his opponent with his hands clasped before him as if deep in prayer. Momoshiki in turn stood stock still, one arm holding his chest while the other was hanging loosely at his side, the Byakugan widened with mixed fury and shock.

With a deeper look, it was a fiercer battle than what was happening before.

 _Gyaku Sakusei,_ Nagato thought as his chakra swam through the space between them. _Reverse Creation. The anti-thesis to the Creation of All Things said to be used by the Sage of Six Paths._

His Rinnegan no longer saw the normal colors of sight. It all seemed darkened. The only colors he could see were his blue-colored chakra, and the purple haze that was Momoshiki's. His blue chakra had stuck itself into the purple like swords piercing the skin, slowly turning the purple into blue.

But the other was resisting, and resisting harshly. The potency of Nagato's own chakra was excessively powerful, he knew, but Momoshiki's-

"This technique…" Momoshiki breathed, his voice sounding as distorted as their surroundings. "It is from our ancient scriptures, banished from use… but you still use it…"

"Looks like it's the only thing that could kill something like you," Nagato said strangely. His chakra _tensed_ , his soul _ached._ The strain of the technique was more than anything he could have ever dreamed of. Every cell in his body seemed to feel icy cold and depressed. Whereas he had always imagined giving life would make someone would feel warm, the extermination of it seemed personified in the most chilling way possible.

Momoshiki gurgled, the purple, hazy chakra glowing. "You don't have the strength to finish this. But _I_ do… you should have known the risks of this jutsu…"

The hazy purple chakra began to push Nagato's pure blue out, the color overtaking the other. Nagato felt the strain grow and felt his nose bleeding in his body as he fought for control.

 _Rerverse Creation. The absolute undoing and reversal of life. And if I don't do anything to stop him, he's going to do what I'm trying to do back to me._

The purple progress slowed, and he felt Momoshiki's frustration- and _fear_. He was _afraid_ of Nagato winning this. And his fear gave Nagato hope that he could win the battle of wills. Both were exhausted, they were riding on sheer desperation to win.

A sadistic glimmer of joy rippled from Momoshiki's chakra. _Come, Kinshiki. Yes, the time has come. Give me your chakra so that I can destroy this worm!_

Nagato forged himsef forward. _I have to end this NOW!_

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

 _Save Pain._ That was what he shouted after her. But Pain was below, broken and forgotten.

 _I'm saving Nagato._

Her paper shuriken, laced with explosive tags, zipped through the air. They all missed striking Kinshiki as they flew up the side of Pain's tower, but one embedded itself far enough to explode and impair his approach.

"Foolish girl!" Kinshiki threw chakra weapons at her, which she swiveled through the air to avoid. The tips of her wings fired off needle-sharp senbon paper that Kinshiki, flying almost casually, swerved to avoid. They both flew through the air, clashing or throwing projectiles at each other. The stump of his left leg bled freely, and Konan realized that even though she was tired from her own fight, Kinshiki had nonstop been battling even longer. However great his chakra reserves, he was finally reaching the end of his rope.

 _Then what does he hope to do for Momoshiki?_ She wondered. _What does he have to offer._

He rushed through the air with a glowing sword, and her left wing bent inward to take her out of the way. Kinshiki impaled the blade on the building, but ripped it free and swung for her again. She released a flurry of paper birds that pecked at Kinshiki. He grunted and waved them away, but his movements were slow, sloppy; the birds opened up bits of his flesh and blood ran from dozens of minor wounds. The tower was slowly moving away from them, falling into the other direction; it only increased her urgency.

"What do you hope to accomplish?" Konan demanded. "You're dying- you have nothing left to offer your partner!"

The other chuckled. "He is not my partner," Kinshiki said throatily, finally swatting the birds away. "He is my lord, my master, just as the one called Pain is yours."

"He isn't my _master_ ," she said, feeling hollow by the accusation. _Is that how we really seem to the others?_ But she thought of Kisame, and how they had spoken of camaraderie and loyalty. _No, he saw how we were._ Her fists tightened. _Nagato… not Pain..._

"Like any lesser being, my life is only in service to my master. In this case… very literally." Kinshiki held a hand to his chest, the Byakugan filled with fanatical light. "I will give myself to Lord Momoshiki as is required to me, and the power he will acquire will make him unchallengeable to any one being. He will take his divinity… and open up an entire new plane of it!"

Konan didn't like the way he was talking. "I won't allow you to proceed."

The other smiled bloodily. "Of course you won't. You yourself must give yourself to your master now, if he is to win. Only of us will reach our Lords… and that will be decided _now_."

As if in answer, the rain fell harder than ever. Kinshiki's details formed, leaving only the outline of his large form, and the ominous glow of the red sword in his hand.

 _Only one of us will reach our lords._ If she had arrived, this _wouldn't_ have happened. She could've been there with Nagato already, helping him! Tobi could've killed off Kinshiki, but instead she was the one fighting him. She almost felt as if the fake Madara was purposefully testing the two of them- why, she couldn't begin to guess.

 _It doesn't matter. What I've done… I've done._ Her amber eyes settled on the hazy outline of the other. _It's what I do next that matters._

Yahiko. The old Akatsuki. The jinchuuriki. The people of the Leaf Village. Sasori. Deidara. Kakuzu. Hidan. Itachi. The Zetsu's. Danzo. Too many had died, all for this cause, Danzo himself had made that clear. Could they really continue the Tailed Beast Plan? All these lives spent, and peace was still not achievable.

She heard the flurry of air, and knew Kinshiki was making his move. She hovered, empty handed, her body soaked and her wings flapping gently.

Was it worth it?

 _Pain is not the solution_ , she realized. _For all he's ever said… he has only continued the Cycle of Hatred. He is the result of what Danzo started, and through that I am a result. This has to END-_

She bent horizontally and zoomed forward-

 _No one else will die because of our planning. I won't work with Pain- I'll work with Nagato._

Kinshiki gasped, choked, hovering in midair as they collided and went past each other. Konan winced, feeling the cut of the sword where it had scraped her cheek.

"My… lord..."

He fell away in two distinct halves, bisected by the sharp, angular cut of the paper wing. His outline faded from view, swallowed up by the rain.

And from her eyes, tears flew as well. The moments with Nagato were what she treasured- defending him against Naruto, watching him as he recovered during the sealing, the silent communication of knowing what the other felt as they sat talking to Kisame.

 _The past. I've spent so long trying to forget that Day and what I lost… that I could never understand that I hadn't lost everything after all._

 _I'm coming, Nagato._

 **XXX**

 **Nagato**

 **XXX**

When his consciousness was beginning to fade, the purple chakra overtaking him once more, death creeping behind him with its cold hands, an angel appeared. Her chakra glowed white through his eyes, spread out in the shape of one. He could not recall who it could be, only what it could mean. _This is it._

But his opponent seemed gripped with fear. " _NO!"_

Try as he might to break the connection, the jutsu was unstoppable. Just like the creation of life could not be stopped, so could the ability to not take it away.

The chill vanished as the white chakra melded with own own blue, creating a lively aqua color.

" _IT CAN'T BE! I AM GOD, I AM THE EATER OF WORLDS!"_

The aqua chakra pushed the purple into its core, and try as it struggled, like an animal beaten into a corner, there were no avenues for escape. With a last, death-defying scream, the color of purple dissapeared-

His vision returned to normal, and his breath caught in his throat. His whole body was aflame but wasn't; it was a dull pain, like a thousand swords piercing him but not really touching him. His eyes, the Rinnegan, hurt the worst, and he almost couldn't open them for the pain of it.

But he did so. He saw Momoshiki turn to an absolute white, his body divided down the middle perfectly. His face was frozen in absolute shocked hatred, but that was the last expression it would ever make. He watched, aware of a warm hand holding his hands, as the the white form cracked and disintegrated into nothingness, not even leaving the presence of a dust pile behind. A husky purple glow remained there, writhling in what could have been agony, before it dissipated and was as gone as the physical body.

At last he breathed. His body felt like it was falling- _no, the tower is,_ he thought calmly- and relaxed in his prison. And yet, he felt freedom was around the corner.

"Nagato, _Nagato_ …"

The angel, who's name he still couldn't place, kneeled beside him. Her wings were folded behind her, her blue hair falling before her face messily. Tears streaked down the eye visible to him, a powerful orange that felt as warm as the hand touching his own.

His mind was gone; the Gyaku Sakusei was not a forgiving technique. To take away life was the ultimate crime- the payment would be one's own.

Nagato was going to die.

" _You shouldn't have done that technique!"_ she screamed at him. " _What were you thinking!"_

"I've done God's work," he breathed. "I've saved our World… but still… I could not seem to give it peace."

"You shouldn't have done it," she said, hopeless now. She kneeled helplessly before him. "We were going to give it peace, Nagato. What is there for me now?"

Painfully, he turned his head to her. "There is always more," he whispered. "You… Konan… there is always more…"

"Not anymore," she said, sounding distant. "I failed us both Nagato… I gave into hatred, I killed Danzo out of hate. I came too late to help you, to save you… to save ourselves…" She tightened her grip on his hand. "I'll die here with you, as the tower falls."

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

"No."

"No?!" she demanded of him. "You'll rob me of my last wish, as you yourself die here next to me!" Her heart was tearing itself apart, just as it had that Day- could he not see that? It did not seem he was all there.

"No," he said, stronger. "Konan… you did nothing wrong…"

"No, I-"

" _Listen."_ He swallowed, and he seemed to have trouble doing so. She quickly took him out of the mobile roller, held him in her own arms. The furniture of the sanctum was all leaning against the far wall, the direction the tower tilted- the roller followed. But she kept them there, to hear him.

" _Listen._ I see now… I am no God, and I never was. These eyes… cannot cover up that I remain human." He smiled weakly. "And humans make mistakes. It's what we make of these mistakes that shape who we become."

"And we cannot become monsters like they were."

She thought of Danzo, dead and forgotten on a distant bridge, far from his home. Momoshiki and Kinshiki, dead and gone. All three lusting for power… and yet permanently detached from it because of their ambitions."

"They were blinded, as I was blinded when I fought Jiraiya sensei… when I fought the Nine Tails. I thought myself all-powerful… who knows what I might have become after we sealed the Eight Tails and we were not stopped? To show us our future…"

"What are you saying?"

He chuckled. "It's almost like a _real_ God sent those two to stop me."

"I was wrong- _we've_ been wrong." His breaths were growing shorter, but even as the tower reached it's full tilt and began to fall in earnest, she bent her head close enough that her hair covered his lips, hiding his Rinnegan from the views of their crumbling world-

Only as he whispered to her of a new one.


	19. Chapter 19 - The End of Pain

**This is nearing the end. Wednesday will see the release of the Conclusion and an Author's Note, so stay tuned for then.**

 **Review Response:**

 **Guest:** Think you're gonna find out now what the results are.

 **OceanLord2017:** Unintentionally I suppose it did mirror what Aang did Ozai, though I wasn't thinking of it. I was thinking in terms of the "Creation of All Things Technique" taken to a more literal sense, in that instead of creating life it simply taking it away in the purest form. Also glad you enjoyed the fight, I feel team fights are a very rare occurrence outside of Team 7, let alone Akatsuki, so I had fun doing it. Some of your questions about characters will be answered here, and the rest in the Conclusion. Thanks for tuning in.

 **BlackDisciple:** I agree, the more I want to say spiritually creative side of the Rinnegan was never explored and it's a theme I sort of danced around: is the eye really only capable of destruction? Thanks, I was very satisfied by the way I wrote Momoshiki's end as well. I also wanted that tension and fear of Kinshiki reaching him as well, because we all know the results of that from the movie. I almost considered letting it happen and having a more negative end for the story, but I think you'll like the way it's turned out instead.

 **XXX**

 **Other**

 **XXX**

The citizens of Amegakure watched in stupefied silence as the great tower of the village leader fell, flattening blocks of structure and life. Some said it signified his fall from grace, just as Hanzo had fallen before. Others said it was impossible for him to fall, and simply said a great battle was being waged.

Whatever rumors flew, nobody approached, save for six figured soaked and grumbling in the rain.

They found in the ground floor of the collapsed tower a strange sight. The members of Akatsuki were grouped there: the man who had attempted to assassinate them, Kisame Hoshikage of the Mizukage's land. Sasuke Uchiha and his subordinates rested there. A masked man in orange neither of them recognized also stood there, watching their approach.

"Well, we came here to finish wiping you out!" the Tsuchikage grumbled, holding his aching back as he sat upon the shoulders of his larger bodyguard. "But it seems we've only come to watch you die ourselves!"

"What has happened here," the Kazekage asked of Sasuke. The young Uchiha, however, seemed beyond words. He only gave a blank stare before turning back to the body of his young red-head teammate.

A shadow fell over them, and the Kages, their bodyguards, and the man called Tobi all gazed up as they watched a woman, with long white wings descend in their midst, holding the body of a man with hair shot white, his skeletal frame held gently in her dirty, bloodied hands.

The silence was louder than the rain, and it was surprisingly Tobi who spoke first. "They are defeated, then."

She nodded. She gave the Kages an almost disinterested look before standing up, letting the dead man's body rest upon the metal floor.

The Tsuchikage was too irritated by the silence. "I did not come all this way to be ignored! What happened to this tower! This village, even! And what is that grotesque statue staring down at us-"

Tobi glided forward. "Allow me to exp-"

"No. I will, Obito."

The other froze, slowly turned to face her. "What did you say?"

She brushed past them, to stand directly before the Kage. Either one of them could make a move to strike her down, but even the Tsuchikage was hesitant to do so. Something about the way she held herself, the weariness in her eyes, subdued them all to listen.

"I'm going to tell you the story of a man called Nagato. A man you've never heard of, but have believed to know very well."

The other members of Akatsuki looked up to listen, Kisame looking especially interested. The one called Obito stared.

"I will tell you what you know first. To all of you, he has had a persona known as Pain. Through Pain, he has led the organization called Akatsuki, whom you used to hire for missions you were unwilling to trust your own shinobi with. Those same criminals have also been tracking down your jiinchuriki- and capturing them."

"I knew it," the Tsuchikage snarled, but the Kazekage stayed him with an open palm. "Wait."

The woman continued as if there had been no interruption. "Outwardly, you have known him as Pain. And until a few days ago, only two other people alive knew that Pain was not all he was. That number has slowly grown… and before I felt apprehensive about it, now I feel it should be known."

"Pain was a monster. But Nagato was a good man. A good man who deserves the respect of a world that will never understand him."

"Konan," Obito said warningly, threat veiled in his voice. "Don't say more than must be said-"

" _All_ of it must be said," she replied. "For them to understand… and so that we may work together."

"Work together?" the Mizukage and Obito said at the same time. "You're out of your mind-"

The Kazekage, so young and yet full of calm maturity, held up another hand. "I would hear her words."

The other Kage and their bodyguards seemed oblivious; the Tsuchikage gave a nod to his guards, and they both took on hand-signs-

"Are you afraid that what I might hear will change you?" Konan challenged. "Or are the words of one just beneath you?"

"You're an Akatsuki, an international criminal!" the Mizukage retorted, though she had stopped in her aggressive moves. "Nothing you can say will change anything. What's been done has been done."

"But you have no idea what's been done, what's happening, or what _can_ happen." Konan paused. "But if you _do_ now without listening, then you risk repeating the history of your ancestors. Let this be a moment to decide change." She gestured to the dead man behind her. "His sacrifice should not be in vain."

"Sacrifice?" the Tsuchikage spluttered.

"Fine." Obito observed her through the eye-hole of the mask. She did not care to what lied beneath it, but could sense the intention, burning beneath it. To fulfill his _own_ plan- but something, was staying him, just like the Kages.

"This man Nagato was Pain, but he was much more than that," Konan said slowly. "He was a man who suffered, and suffered tremendously. He lived through the Civil War of Amegakure, where he watched his best friend die. He watched as his other best friend was threatened with death as well, all in the midst of a betrayal by the other side. And in that moment, hatred overtook him. He killed almost every member of the other side, and by the end of it, Pain was born, and Nagato was buried far beneath the surface."

"He claimed he had risen about that hatred, that the pain of loss had made him mature beyond his humanity. In short, he claimed to be God. And I, the friend he rescued, became his Angel. Together, we restored our battered land to peace and reunited it- for peace, we said. In reality, Pain killed one of the men who had betrayed him, Hanzo, and usurped his place as Leader."

The Kages murmured in amazement; news of Hanzo's death had never officially been told. That he had actually been killed also struck them, and they looked to the dead man with renewed interest.

Still Konan spoke. "Then he created Akatsuki, guided by another man equally twisted by hate." Here, Obito twitched almost invisibly; none of them noticed. "The goal of Akatsuki, as told by Pain, was to capture the Tailed Beasts by storing them in a statue called the Gedo, where their chakra would be used to create devastating new kinjutsu, to which, when completed, they would use to destroy a ninja village to inspire fear into all of the others. From there, each village would then be given a kinjutsu to use against each other, with the idea they would be too hesitant to use such devastating weapons against each other." She looked at each of their stunned expressions, and smiled wistfully. "A world ruled by terror."

"But that plan did not work. To capture the Nine-Tails, Pain destroyed the entire Village Hidden in the Leaves to draw him out. Then, in capturing the last Tailed Beast, two beings emerged from another dimension that stopped the process of cultivating their chakra, forcefully stopping our plans. They were real Gods, easily stopping us. They then destroyed the Village Hidden in the Clouds."

"By the Sage of Six Paths," the Mizukage breathed. "Are you telling me there are only three great shinobi villages left?"

"And that those entire two lands are now devoid of armed forces?" the Tsuchikage asked with a falsely innocent look.

Konan's calm voice broke into harshness. "You are the oldest here, yet you are al the more thirsty to throw more people into violence?" she demanded, actually walking up to him and making the Kage's guards tense. "You have witnessed more than any of us, but you still want to retread the cycle of hatred? Have you no honor?"

Stupefied into silence, the Tsuchikage only glowered at her. "Age does not breed wisdom," Konan said quietly. "Nagato, so young, is the wisest man I will ever know."

"Yet you have not told us why," the Kazekage said calmly. Not as a challenge, but simply with a tone of desiring more information. He, she was certain, wanted to know it all.

She took a deep breath, lifting her face and letting the rain wash over her. "Nagato realized a number of things, during his battle with the two greater beings. And I, in my own journeys, have to agree with everything he has said. I hope you will, too."

"All too many times we have lied to ourselves, saying the wars we fight will be the one 'to end the next.' Or that this one 'will be the one that builds a peace.' The threat of war hangs over weary nations until they are no longer weary, and they are ready for war. Fear, he realized, could not be used as a motivator for real peace."

"Likewise, the methods to achieve it could not be any more hypocritical. How many lives have been spent to get the Akatsuki to where it is? We have been no better than any one of the warring ninja villages. We have lied to ourselves, blinded our own movements saying we are building towards peace… when we have only been speeding up the countdown to a war that could spell the end for even more lives."

Konan closed her eyes, thinking of a man called Danzo who she had killed. "I killed the upcoming Hokage, Danzo, out of hatred," she said softly, making them all stiffen. "I admit it. I was so lost in my anger that I acted on a whim, instead of realizing helping Nagato and the rest of Akatsuki fight the two beings would be much more beneficial. Had I been able to overcome that feeling… who knows what might have happened here."

The Mizukage bit her lip. "These two beings are…?"

"Dead, yes. They are responsible for damage done here." She gave them a look of steel. "He gave up his life to stop them. To save this world."

"We could have stopped them," the Tsuchikage murmured, though he sounded more subdued than ever before. His eyes traveled about the fallen tower, the dead girl and man, the battered look on the others. "Maybe…"

"Thanks to him, you will never have to know," Konan said flatly. "And he wants _no_ one else to ever know the pain he did, nor go through the sacrifice he did."

"So what are you proposing," the Kazekage asked.

For the first time, she truly smiled. "Something that not only our sensei proposed, but another one of his students did. We must accept the pain we have taken, but we must not let it grow us towards the direction of causing pain for others. We must look at it- and truly come to terms we want no one else to feel it."

"Peace… through understanding?" the blue-haired guard of the Mizukage asked, before quickly backing down.

However, Konan nodded eagerly. "Yes, exactly. Through compassion, negotiation, and honesty, we can make a world where the violence that bred people like Pain, that put men like Nagato under layers of reclusiveness does not exist."

The silence returned. The Kages looked at her, seriously contemplating her.

But once again, it was not them who spoke first. "You truly believe this?" Obito whispered, almost in disbelief. "You believe that simply by talking to one another, we can end our individual pain? It's absurd, impossible-"

"If Nagato could realize a peaceful solution, so can you," Konan snapped at him. "Open your eyes, Obito! He told me your name, yes! I see that look in your eye- I know what you plan. But taking his Rinnegan and the stolen Tailed Beast Chakra in him will not solve anything. You will only continue the very cycle you claim to be stopping." She stared him down, into the pits of the red Sharingan. "Can you really tell me what you're going to do is noble?"

Obito gave no reply, simply standing there mystified. She turned away from him, back to the Kage. "The past is the past, and what's been done has been done," she said to them. "But if we continue to follow the past… the future holds no meaning. We must create a new beginning, starting now."

"I am willing to follow Nagato's Word," The Kazekage announced. "A new peace must be established."

"His words move me as well," the Mizukage intoned. "I would be interested in hearing them, Konan."

The Tsuchikage sighed. "You two are too easily swayed… but I suppose there isn't any harm in listening to what this woman can say to us." He nodded to her, and waved a hand carelessly at the rest of the Akatsuki. "We will hear more of this… 'Nagato's Word,' as the Kazekage called it, and see how we can begin making new policies to fit a climate of understanding."

Konan sighed, this time in relief. She looked back and saw Kisame with his sharp-toothed smile, but this time it gave only a friendly, encouraging vibe. _Stay true to your comrades…_

And in this moment, she came to understand one more thing. _Nagato's Word… and I his messenger. Your words became that of a God's after all… and I will help spread it to the end._


	20. Conclusion

**Review Response:**

 **BlackDisciple:** Konan was always referred to as the "Messenger of God," so I did take it literally at the end here. It seemed fitting for her, when in the normal course of events she basically placed herself under Naruto's word as well. Nagato's story, as well, I often felt could have had a much larger impact on the shinobi world had it been more known. This was a chance to do so, and more so bolsters that he was in a well defined gray area of morality.

 **OceanLord2017:** Always has to be a talk no jutsu in there somewhere, right? Like I said to BlackDisciple, her role really was to be the spreader of the word, it's just now she's realized it should have been Nagato's, not Pain's. Gaara is definitely the most sympathetic of the Kages at the time being so young and aforementioned being the one to give Sasuke a chance at the Summit in the actual anime, as well as giving the soundest advice after Madara's Declaration of War. He seemed the right person who would give Konan a chance.

 **Guest:** Gonna assume you're the same guy responding twice. Logically yes, Konan and the others should've probably been killed for the actions they'd done in the past; gray area of morality or not, it's obvious they've done bad. At this point Gaara would have guessed what had happened to Naruto, but at the same time if he let his emotions get in the way of being a Kage and hearing what this woman was risking her life to say, then I think that would be out of character. The fact that she's in the end preaching what Naruto would've wanted would make Gaara trust her more. This chapter is pretty much anime logic; by all rights even without fanfiction, Nagato would never have been convinced by Naruto, or Obito, or maybe even Sasuke. It just makes for a good and mostly honest story this way.

 **Paradox009:** Thanks for reading!

 **XXX**

 **Konan**

 **XXX**

For the first time since that Day, she looked into Yahiko's real eyes. Not the Rinnegan that had reflected off them, designating him as Pain. Lifeless and empty as they were, she gained some solace in seeing his face, also removed of all the metal receiver piercings, look back at her almost peacefully.

Beside it, Nagato rested with hands folded over his chests. His Rinnegan still stared out, but there was nothing intimidating about them now. Where before they had been weapons of great power, their last act had been to use that power to save more lives than to take away.

The rain fell on them all, but it was so natural now there was no complaints.

"Are you going to say anything for them?" Kisame grunted. He stood beside her, wearing the Akatsuki cloak like she was, although they had all agreed Akatsuki was now defunct. Without Nagato, what more was there for it? Obito had been nothing but a manipulator trying to steer them. And with their great goal now over, there seemed no more point.

"Nothing more needs to be said," she said quietly, then turned to her left.

A third grave contained Karin, to which Sasuke, Suigetsu, and Jugo stood over. They had said it would be fine if they had their own place for her, but Konan wanted no such thing.

" _She died fighting for the same peace both of these men did," she had told them. "And she died sacrificing herself for the people she cared about."_

 _Sasuke's face had fallen at that. The pure, homicidal hatred he had had at the Summit for Danzo was utterly gone. When Konan had told him that the Leaf Village Elder, he had only marginally stirred._

" _That doesn't matter anymore," he said. "What does is that we never have another Danzo…" He gave her a sidelong glance. "Or Akatsuki."_

His transformation still stunned her, but at the same time it filled her with hope. If someone like Sasuke could be turned away from a violent path like that, then perhaps there was hope for many more. Already the Kages had agreed to cease any hostilities with one another, and extend hands of aid to Konoha and Kumo. A path for rehabilitation had been laid out, they needed only to follow it.

"We said our words earlier," Suigetsu said, his voice shaking. "It's… time."

"Right." She held out her new arm that she had finally made days prior, made entirely of paper. The hand extended out and in it, a bouquet of flowers formed, pure white. She bent down and placed it in Yahiko's grave, then made another and put it on Karin.

She hesitated on Nagato. She didn't remember his lips turned into a smile when he had died. But now, the pale lips were curved, the eyes staring gauntly ahead.

Konan placed the flowers down. The dirt outside the old cottage where they had trained with Jiraiya had retained it's soft earth, and the filling of each grave took no time at all. She watched as their bodies were hidden from view, and finally she released a breath she had not known she was holding.

Sasuke and his teammates turned to her and Kisame, and they did back. "Konohagakure has offered us admittance," he said slowly. "But I have no interest in returning yet."

"What do you plan to do?" she asked.

"Like I told you before; no people like Danzo or Pain can ever emerge again." She felt no insult at the way he referenced Pain; it was so clear to her now the two had never really been the same. Part of her felt like she'd always known. "We will travel, and will stop anything like them from ever emerging again."

"Vigilantes," Kisame commented. "Somehow, it seems almost fitting for you. Working from the shadows, doing justice out of sight. Your brother would be proud of you."

Sasuke gave the faintest signs of a real smile, then gestured for his teammates to follow him as they left the graves. They did not look back: their past they would not forget, but their future was what demanded their full attention now.

"And what will you do, Kisame?" she asked of him.

He looked around, his tiny pupils looking about him. Samehada remained strapped to his back. "I believe in Nagato's Word… and his messenger. I have done evils that can never be forgiven, however." He looked down at her with as much warmth was possible of a man of his natural viciousness. "I cannot follow you into working with the Kages, they would never allow it and I would only hurt your reputation. But if you ever need help…"

Konan held out a hand for him, and he took it only after a second's hesitation. "I know you will never abandon a comrade… or the truth," she said.

He dipped his blue head with a smile of his own, then dashed away, leaving her alone with the freshly dug graves. The rain continued to fall, but she did not yet relax in it.

"Come out."

He came from behind the ruin of her childhood home, his mask off. His scarred face did not phase her at all. "You had quite an interesting childhood," he said simply. His Sharingan were deactivated, though his hands were held tensely at his side.

Konan did not move. "Are you still going to take his eyes?"

"Are you going to stop me?"

"I would. But I don't think you're going to."

He gave a fake smile. "Why do you think that? Think I'm afraid to violate his grave?"

Still she did not move away from standing in front of Nagato's grave. She continued to look at him, daring him to make a move. He held the gaze for a few moments that made her actually question if he would truly act.

But then, the arms fell loosely, and his head leaned back as he sighed. "I won't lie; when you both went to confront the Nine-Tails, I was not sure you would succeed. At the very least, I expected a change in you. But this was the last direction I had expected." He paused. "In the end, it seems, he died anyways. The so-called God. Not very divine now, is he?"

"He never was," she agreed. "But I have a tough time believing Momoshiki and Kinshiki were either."

"You're joking. They were extraordinarily powerful. There'll never been any comparison for them, except maybe the Sage of Six Paths himself."

She shrugged. "In the end, they were just as capable of dying as Nagato. Just because one is powerful or has gifts of divinity doesn't really mean that they are so." She gestured at Nagato's grave with her artificial arm. "At any rate, his words will leave a much longer impact on this world than theirs."

Obito stepped forward, but this time it seemed more out of curiosity than anything. "What did he say, really? There's no way he could have told you to say all that when the tower was in full tilt. What did he actually say?"

"Why does it matter?"

He gave a crooked grin. "I'm not fully convinced by his 'Word' yet."

Konan raised her hands, let the rainwater flow over her as if she were in a river. Refreshing, lively.

"'I trust you.'"

Obito stared. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"Then- it's not his Word at all! That was all _your_ doing, back there with the Kages!" He looked almost surprised. "You lied?"

Thunder boomed from the rain, and Obito flinched. She sighed. "The Tailed Beasts are remaining in the Gedo Statue," she said, looking up into the clouds. "Danzo's death is being publicly declared as an assassination attempt by rogues. To create this peace as quickly as it needed to be… some things had to be sacrificed."

"Like the truth."

"Some of it. What I said… I believe is the truth to him."

Obito pondered that, and in the silence Konan noticed to her shock the rain had stopped. A ray of sunlight peeked down on her, growing larger and striking more and more places. Obito raised a hand to shield his eyes as he, too was bathed in it.

Almost as if, up above, some greater power was agreeing with her.

The fallen Uchiha lowered his hand. "It's… too good to be sure," he said, sounding for the first time uncertain. "But… I will see how this progresses. If his Word can really bring peace. And if it does… I… I will gladly work towards it."

It was as much as she could have hoped, and she gave a small nod, still lost in the wonder. He teleported away, once again leaving her by her lonesome. But the sunlight filled her with a warmth much like that of being in someone's embrace- Yahiko and Nagato, hugging her from either end in support? Or yet some other, different power, congratulating her on her endeavor and change of heart? Could it, with the lies she'd perpetuated?

Konan shook her head. The road ahead was difficult enough without these doubts. Like Sasuke did, she finally walked away from the graves, aware of the daunting past behind her- but ready to make a future all three Ame Orphans had striven for in their childhood finally feel the same sunlight she did now.


	21. Author's Note

**Definitely one of my longer Tale stories, but I felt every chapter was done adequately. I wanted to convey in this a fun but very possible course of action for these two, perhaps the most dynamic duo in Akatsuki. With such a rich history and intense, almost fanatical philosophy carved out from their own bloody lives, I wanted to test it when confronted with a threat much like Naruto: something that deeply challenged their philosophy, and seems very likely to triumph over them. And in the end, Momoshiki and Kinshiki- who I chose bas antagonists because of their own "Godlike" status- indeed triumph over them. They may have been defeated, but you have to remember this isn't Naruto leading the charge to peace anymore. It's Konan and Nagato, and while they reformed somewhat, they're still very broken and bitter people who have a far different mindset.**

 **Next couple of things are just going to be interesting tidbits of the story. If you want the last important stuff, skip to the next bold paragraph.**

Gyaku Sakusei: A lot of you caught on this isn't a jutsu or technique found anywhere in the manga or anime. I made it up myself, Gyaku Sakusei literally translating into "Reverse Creation." I wanted an antithesis to the Sage of Six Paths "Creation of All Things" technique, which in my opinion is the strongest ability ever discussed; the ability to create and breath life. By contrast, Reverse Creation seemed something feasible to destroy an opponent as powerful as Momoshiki.

Obito's Rinne Rebirth: Early on in the story, Obito had Nagato captured and was planning on sacrificing him with the Rinne Rebirth because, "He couldn't do it alone." I never said it, but here I just meant he would reincarnate Madara and most likely control him with black receivers to help him fight the Otsutsuki's.

Cycle of Hatred: I was pretty sloppy with the themes in this work I'll admit, but the one I do want to clarify is the key concept of Pain: stopping the Cycle of Hatred. Using Sasuke as a medium, I wanted to portray the blindness and ignorance conveyed by such malevolent hatred, how he sought to foolishly fight the Kages. Likewise, Konan, who considered herself above hatred, still caved into the heat of the moment when confronted with Danzo, who helped destroy her previous life. I think it's important to remember that she quickly regretted and question what she did after. Like Pain, she held herself in higher regards than average humans, as his angel, but it doesn't change the fact she's just as susceptible to anger like any other person, no matter what she calls herself.

 **All in all, thanks for reading, favoriting, following, and reviewing. Like anyone else who writes here, it's always important for us to have feedback to not only improve, but know there's someone with an interest. Audiences do us all good! I suppose the next question is what's next? I think next is an "Tale of Itachi and Kisame" story, which I do have some groundwork laid out for, and writing about Kisame in this story has definitely fed me some more ideas. After that I was also thinking of a Fugaku Uchiha work, also known as the father of Sasuke and Itachi and leader of the Uchiha Clan at the time.**

 **Thanks for reading again, if you want to discuss this story or any of the ones I've talked about, feel free to leave me a DM or something like that. Otherwise, until the next story (which I'd expect around mid October) I'll see you next time!**


End file.
